Raise your hand if you’re ready for FALL.

Be honest with yourself. Summer’s great and all, but sometimes, it is too HOT. Sometimes, everyone and everything is sweaty, angry, and expensive. September is right around the corner, so it’s time for everyone’s actual favorite season: fall.

Central City, Colorado, is amping up for their second annual arts festival that will have you SO ready for fall. The Central City Plein Air Festival takes place in Central City for one weekend in September. Twenty-two handpicked artists from across the nation will be live-painting the fall landscape in the city.

Arts and Theatre are deeply integrated into the city's identity | Courtesy of Central City Opera

The live painting will be from dawn till dusk, and it’s all spectator friendly! Visitors are more than encouraged to ask questions and talk with each of the artists. They will be stationed within a two-mile radius of the Central City Opera House, Main Street, Eureka Street, the Central City Reservoir and cemeteries, and the Coeur D’Alene Mine.

The best part of the Plein Air Festival? It’s all free! This also includes the flurry of other activities during the festival as well. There is a KidsZone where children are free to paint and create their own art. Different tours of the historic city are also happening. The first is the All-Access Tour of Central City. This guided tour takes you through the Central City Opera House, Teller House, and other privately owned properties that are normally open to the public.

The second tour is around Bald Mountain Cemetery and will be led by the Gilpin Historical Society. But if learning about the dead locale isn’t your cup of tea, take a look at the quick draw competition. During the competition, artists will have 90 minutes to make a complete work of art from scratch! The quick draw paintings will be up for sale afterward, but to look and/or purchase the weekend paintings you’ll have to wait until Sunday evening.

Free parking will be located next to the Opera House. To find out the festival schedule and any other information, go here. You can also visit their website to see the different artists that will be painting during the festival.

Are you a budding artist? Will you be checking out the Central City Plein Air Festival? Let us know down below!