Most Chattanooga street parties are small neighborhood affairs. Not so Main X 24, the Southside kingpin of street festivals here.
It is, as the name implies, a 24-hour, round-the-clock, razzle-dazzle annual event that features most anything you might want in a street festival and neighborhood party, and more.
Main X 24 is, perhaps, the city’s ultimate informal moving feast, with something for everyone, from down-home to hip, and everything in between. And it’s happening, again, from Saturday morning to Sunday morning.
The annual event kicks off on Main Street with the No.1 Fire Hall pancake breakfast and goes in many directions all day long. There will be parades, open houses and a great variety of food, fashion, art, music, cooking, along with bicycling, mutt-strutting, toe-tapping, music blaring, late-night and wee-hours dancing.
Like its predecessors, Main X 24’s events, open houses and participatory activities sprawl across the center of the city’s Southside from the Chattanooga Market Christmas special at the First Tennessee Pavilion by Finley Stadium, east to Central Avenue.
Until the late evening finale, it’s a family affair, with something to suit every taste and all ages, from pony rides to face painting to ice skating, before it gets down to all-night dancing. The main parade and the mutt-strut from Jefferson to Long Street will be at 11 a.m. Saturday (dogs and walkers will line up at 10:30 a.m. at the Loose Cannon). After the parade, the Howard High School Band and Mt. Carmel Baptist Choir will perform.
Many visitors will wander along Main Street checking out the open houses, sipping free coffee one place and inspecting art shows antiques and rugs in others. Parents with youngsters may head for Santa at the Choo-Choo, from 11 a.m. til 3 p.m.
Some visitors will surely take in the world heavyweight chili championship, which will feature 20 teams competing for the title, great bands, and a Leggo Build for youngsters and the young at heart.
This page doesn’t have the room to list the dozens of activities and open houses. To get the listing, log on to www.Mainx24.com
Some of the activities, open houses and participating shops and vendors are new. Many are popular repeats. And the biggest events remain the anchors.
One new big event will be a wood sculpture burn, a dazzling, artful and fiery spectacular of an 18-foot-tall sculpture designed by Vega Chrysalis for a slow, beautiful burn.
In other venues, there will a showcase of music and dance performances from noon til 7:30 p.m., poetry reading, excellent photography and art exhibits, and glass-blowing in a studio where you can make your own Christmas ornament.
The night people who want to dance and listen to music in the evening have several options, from a live blues session with Rick Rushing & The Blues Strangers (free) from 8 til 11, to the Main Event from 9 til 2 a.m. (tickets $18, or $20 at the door), to the 1 a.m. til 6 a.m. Global Mash-up (a disco take on world music).
The list of activities, and the fun, just goes on. But the best part of the festival may be the sense of camaraderie, neighborliness and community-building bonding that makes Main X 24 good for the city. It’s worth going just to be part of that.