Hello, Downtown!
Be enlightened by history before you attend the free Bella Vita Fest featuring chalk art paintings coming to life on the streets of Little Italy.
Sponsored by Galbani and produced by the ArtWalk San Diego team, the upcoming Bella Vita Fest takes place Oct. 17 (11 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and Oct. 18 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Chalk art will appear on main drag, India Street, as well as Grape, Fir and Columbia streets and Kettner Boulevard.
More than 40 chalk artists are lined up to create large-scale street murals. The day also includes a food demo stage, an Italian wine tasting garden and live music.
This is the fifth annual Bella Vita Fest in downtown San Diego’s Little Italy, but the tradition of street painting traces back 500 years. Pavement art was popping up in 16th-century Renaissance Italy. Traveling folk artists walked from Italian town to town. They used colored chalk, charcoal and such, often to draw religious images. Hence, these itinerant artists were called The Madonnari.
That’s a reference to the Madonna – the Catholic Virgin Mary and not the re-risen pop diva who still duets with Sabrina Carpenter and Charli xcx.
Street painting faded after World War II but saw a revival at a 1972 festival in Grazie di Curatone, Italy. A Madonnari Italian Street Festival popped up in Santa Barbara in 1987, which brings us to San Diego’s Bella Vita Fest.
October is officially recognized as Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month. When you come to Little Italy to gawk at hunched over artists and mouth-feel some wine, take a moment to feel the historic vibe behind the festival.
And drink in this timeless wisdom from Italian work of art Sophia Loren: “Se non hai mai pianto, i tuoi occhi non possono essere belli.” (“If you haven’t cried, your eyes can’t be beautiful.”)
For more information, go to: Bella Vita Fest.
Ron Donoho
Downtown News newsletter host
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