General iFest Information

  Festival Fast Facts

• $8.50 early bird ticket (Beginning March 10 - April 16), $12.50 advanced ticket (after April 16), $15 at the gate. Children 12 & under FREE courtesy of the TARGET KIDS FREE program
• Tickets available online and at Houston area H-E-B locations
• Buy Tickets Now  
• Easy access parking available at Theater District lots around the site for $6
• ATMs available onsite
• Bicycle racks available at entrance located at Smith & McKinney
• Schedule available online or at ticket and coupon booths throughout the Festival site - schedule subject to change without notice
• Festival food and beverage vendors accept coupons only. Coupons sold at the Festival (vendors set their own prices) in sheets of nine for $10.00 and single coupons for $1.50. Credit cards (American Express, MasterCard and VISA) can be used to purchase coupons at coupon booths throughout the site
• Free Friday Lunchtime concerts at City Hall. Fridays April 18 & 25 from 11:00am to 2:00pm. Enjoy international fare from the food court along with great music for a relaxing mid-day break. No admission ticket required
• Sorry, but per city ordinance no dogs are allowed in city parks or plazas so we cannot allow dogs to enter the site

 iFest Dates & Hours 

 Location: iFest is located in downtown Houston and includes City Hall, Tranquility Park and Sam Houston Park 
                        


Directions
I-45 North: Exit Dallas/Pierce
I-45 South: Exit Downtown
I-10 East: Exit San Jacinto/Main
I-10 West: Exit Downtown Smith
US-59 South: Exit Louisiana


Street Closures:

Friday, 4/18 beginning at 7:00pm                                                             
I-45 off-ramp at McKinney                                                                        
Smith at Rusk
Bagby at Dallas and Walker
Walker at Louisiana
Walker at Allen Parkway
Brazos at Dallas (except for Library passes and Heritage building)
Lamar at Louisiana

These streets are closed through Sunday

Friday, 4/25 beginning at 7:00pm
Smith at Rusk
Bagby at Dallas and Walker
Walker at Louisiana
Walker at Allen Parkway
Brazos at Dallas (except for Library passes and Heritage building)
McKinney off-ramp
Lamar at Louisiana to Smith

These streets remain closed through Sunday


 Lost Child/Lost & Found

If someone is looking for a lost child or a lost and found item during the Festival, go to the Lost Kids Booth/Lost
and Found located at the corner of Bagby and Walker on the steps of the backside of City Hall 
 
 Just a Few Rules

We love animals, but Houston City Ordinance prohibits pets of any kind from attending the festival. Personal cameras and hand-held camcorders okay to bring; however, you may not videotape the performers.

And in the interest of public safety (and so everyone can enjoy the festival), please leave these items at home during the festival:

• Alcohol and other beverages
• Coolers
• Food
• In-line skates
• Laser pointers
• Radios
• Skateboards
• Fireworks
• Weapons
• Audio recording devices for recording of any live performances
• Professional camera equipment for recording of any live performances
• Video recording equipment for recording of any live performances
  (Sorry, due to performer's contracts, no recording devices are allowed during live performances. Any person found in possession of such equipment will be asked to leave the venue and all film and tape will be confiscated.)

 Transportation

Easy access by way of METRO. Call 713-635-4000 or visit www.ridemetro.org for information on routes and schedules and all METRO services.

 Where to Stay  

                                                               Courtyard Houston Downtown /Convention Center
916 Dallas Street
Houston, Texas 77002 USA
Phone: 1-832-366-1600 
Rooms start at $94
Book online

 

 

           Book online for first weekend

                                              Book online for second weekend

 

 

 

  

                    Hyatt Regency Houston

 About Us

 Business
The Houston International Festival fosters good will relations with other countries in an effort to stimulate international trade. With the Port of Houston and our ranking as the 4th largest city in the U.S., Houston is a natural catalyst for trade. The Festival coordinates and works closely with the The Greater Houston Partnership, Houston and Convention and Visitor's Bureau, Houston Protocol Alliance, the Mayor's office, chambers of commerce, consulates, and embassies.

Where Does The Revenue Go?
Right back into the Festival. To bring you more high quality entertainment and cultural exhibits every year. To pay for the music, the sound, the lights, the stages. To fund arts and education programs which reach nearly one million students in the Greater Houston area, including Fort Bend and Galveston school districts.

Who's Behind All This?
The Houston Festival Foundation, Inc., a 501-c-3 non-profit organization established in 1971, is the muscle behind this great event. The Foundation is supported primarily through corporate sponsorship and corporate and Foundation grants, site vendors, in-kind support from the City of Houston through services, and YOUR vital support as a Festival visitor. Our non-profit status keeps our ticket prices low (surf the web and compare our cost to other festivals that charge).

Our Education Programs
Kids learn about the spotlighted region from November until Festival time with our Teacher's Curriculum Guide. They participate in contests, receive scholarships, and attend field trips on-site Festival grounds to see the living museum and other interactive exhibits on-site. It's all about celebrating diversity and learning about different cultures. It's all about making our children, the future generation, global citizens.

  History

 

Timeline for 1971
Main Street 1 was the name given to a Salute to the Arts to be held Downtown—a weekend happening of celebrations highlighting the performing and visual arts, on the sidewalks, streets, and store windows located between Dallas and McKinney on Main Street. Sakowitz and Foleys Department Stores, and the Cultural Affairs Committee of the Houston Chamber of Commerce, with Mayor Louie Welch's blessing, sponsored the event. It was the beginning of the cultural salute that grew and evolved into today's Houston International Festival.

Timeline for 1973
Houston's Main Street Art Happening was moved from Downtown (where the City Ordinance prohibited street closings) to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and it's grounds across from the Contemporary Arts Museum, still on Main but now more "mid-town". This attempt at an outdoor-indoor celebration created safety concerns with crowds of pedestrians crossing streets, so in...

Timeline for 1974
The Art Happening moved to Hermann Park, near the Museum. It was expanded to two weekends to help minimize the risk of inclement weather affecting attendance.

Timeline for 1976
The event was named "The Houston Festival", and remained so for the next ten years. The organizational structure changed, with the creation of The Houston Festival Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit with its own Board of Directors and budget, separate from the Houston Chamber of Commerce sponsorship. The Foundation still remains the producing entity today.

Timeline for 1977
The Festival moved back downtown, this time with two stages across from the Alley Theatre and Jones Hall, at what is now Jones Plaza. Attendance grew but expansion was limited in that site.

Timeline for 1979
The Festival moved to a larger potential site at Market Square, in order to accommodate the growing number of participants and attendees.

Timeline for 1983
The City of Houston signed an Ordinance proclaiming the Houston Festival as an official City-sponsored salute to the arts, and permitted the event to expand and locate at the Sam Houston Park area of Downtown Houston.

Timeline 1986
"Rendezvous Houston," highlighting the anniversaries of Houston and the Texas Sesquicentennial celebrations and was one of the biggest events ever staged in Houston, was produced as the centerpiece of the Houston Festival. Lasers and fireworks danced above and around the skyscrapers downtown accompanied by French composer Jean-Michel Jarre's original music compositions. The 1.3 million people in attendance and the national media were all astonished at the event which is still remembered proudly to this day.
The Festival Foundation, whose structure was overtaxed by the costs of organizing the 1986 event and chaffing from the resulting financial fallout from the "Rendezvous"' set out to recover from the consequences and re-structure the organization. Current Festival President Dr. James Austin was hired in late summer 1986, and with the Board set out to re-examine the path and future for the Festival. This began the expansion of the basic concepts of the event, adding the now-established education and business collaborations and programs.

Timeline for 1987
The name of the celebration was changed to "The Houston International festival" to celebrate Houston's role as an international city, highlight it's ethnic diversity, and better educate the youth of the Houston in the arts and cultures of other countries. Following this event, a plan was developed to spotlight the arts and cultures of an individual country or region of the world each year, with request for assistance from the participating governments at the highest levels possible.

Timeline for 1988
Australia was the first country of honor, with the international theme presenting an amalgam of that country's culture and arts: visual, performing, culinary, as well as an all-day business inter-change with Australian and Texan businesses. A different country or region in alternate parts of the globe were to be selected for the "spotlight" thereafter, although the Festival continued to build more performing stages to ensure on-going presentations of arts from throughout the world during the two week event.

Timeline for 1989 - 2003
1989 continued the new pattern with the spotlight on France, followed by The United Kingdom (1990); Japan (1991); Spain & the New World (1992); Mexico (1993); Italy (1994); Turkey (1995); West Africa (1996); China (1997); Islands of the Caribbean (1998); Southern Africa (1999); Brazil for the 2000 Millennium; Ireland (2001); and a revisit to France in 2002 and Mexico in 2003. After twenty years, the City Ordinance regarding the Festival's unique status lapsed, and downtown Houston is in the throes of a major renaissance of urban development and street improvements. Possible congestion and other factors present the Foundation with the need for an examination for alternative sites. The Houston International Festival moves south, this time following the tracks of the METRO's new light rail transportation line for better access and more space to Reliant Park. 

Timeline for 2004
The Houston International Festival turns towards Asia with its first spotlight on Thailand at Festival Plaza at Reliant Park. Five Asian elephants join the programming mix in a special appeal to families.