St. Pete's Newest Arts Festival Skips the Tents and Hangs Its Art Inside EDGE District Shops

Starting Thursday, November 12, a juried painting may hang in the kava bar at 957 Central Avenue. Others will be in the pasta shop at 905 Central, the tea room at 1445 Central, a credit union lobby and a hotel. The first Booker Creek Arts Festival runs Thursday, November 12 through Sunday, November 15. Admission is free, and nothing is set up on the street. The work of 126 selected artists goes inside the businesses that already line Central Avenue and 1st Avenue North.

So for four days, the EDGE District's own rooms are the gallery. The festival is named for a creek most people walk over without seeing. One of its presenting sponsors is also putting money toward a trail the city plans to build through the district. It's a good weekend to see the district as one walkable route.

A gallery with 34 street addresses

The festival lists 34 participating venues. Festival chair Leslie Curran described the model to The Artisan Magazine. She has attended ArtFields in Lake City, South Carolina, for years, a festival where "the whole town becomes a giant art gallery." She wanted to build something similar in the EDGE, where her gallery, ARTicles, used to be. In the same interview she said it is "not a 'street festival' with closed streets, tents and booths," and each artist shows only one piece.

Curran also started the Second Saturday ArtWalk and First Night St. Pete, so this is another festival from the person behind two of the city's longest-running art traditions.

Here is where the work hangs, grouped by block so the walk is easy to plan:

The newest name on the list is Casa Origen. I Love the Burg reported that it began a limited soft opening on October 24 with counter service and a small menu, and full dinner service is planned for early January. That makes the festival an easy reason to try it now.

Your vote carries prize money

The festival advertises up to $50,000 in jury-awarded prizes. The Artisan interview breaks out the main awards: $10,000 for Best in Show, $7,500 for the Award of Excellence, ten Merit awards of $1,500 each, and two People's Choice awards of $2,500 each.

The People's Choice awards are decided by festivalgoers. The fine art awards ceremony is Saturday evening, and the People's Choice and Plein Air awards are announced at noon on Sunday. That means your votes need to be in before the weekend ends. Each venue holds only a few pieces, so you'll see more work by visiting a dozen businesses than by staying long at any one of them.

You can also buy the art. Original works are for sale directly from the participating artists. Outdoors there will be live mural painting, plein air painting, glass blowing, dance, music and children's activities, plus a "Go With the Flow" show curated by local artist Chad Mize. An opening-night display on Thursday repeats Friday and Saturday evenings. The festival hasn't announced what that display is or where the Mize show will be, so check bookercreekarts.com for updates.

The creek in the name runs under Central Avenue

Booker Creek is a small creek with a long history. The festival describes it as flowing from the northeast corner of the EDGE District. Its banks were settled first by the Tocobaga people and, in the 1880s, by the builders of the Orange Belt railway. That railway ran along the creek and ended at what is now the southeast corner of the EDGE, and St. Petersburg grew from that terminus. Lumberyards, livestock barns, the city's first full-time fire station and a power plant all depended on the creek.

According to USF St. Petersburg, the creek runs about three miles from west of I-275 to the south edge of the USF St. Petersburg campus. Along the way it passes under Central Avenue, around Tropicana Field and beneath I-175, then through Campbell Park and Roser Park before reaching Bayboro Harbor. Curran told The Artisan it "runs through the western end of the EDGE, under Central Avenue, and south next to the Tropicana." If you walk the 900 block during the festival, you're walking over it.

The trail with the creek's name is still years away

The creek's name will soon be on more than a festival. Bay News 9 reported in July 2026 that the city wants to buy a 0.86-mile stretch of unused CSX rail corridor between 1st Avenue South and 5th Avenue North, about 7.8 acres, and turn it into a new path. "It's called the Booker Creek Trail," city transportation manager Cheryl Stacks told the station.

The corridor runs right through the Ferg's Sports Bar property. Ferg's owner Mark Ferguson offered $6 million for a 99-year lease of those tracks plus a gravel lot across Central Avenue, and City Council approved the lease in July, according to Bay News 9. The city plans to put that money toward the $7 million land purchase. St. Pete Catalyst reported earlier that month that Council would take up the ground leases. Ferg's is also one of the festival's two presenting sponsors, along with Booker Creek Ventures.

Here's how the route would work. A tunnel under 1st Avenue South would lead to a sidewalk along the Ferg's property up to Central Avenue, and the finished trail would connect to the Historic Gas Plant District and the Pinellas Trail. Ferguson told Bay News 9 the trail would "get people off the couch and get them down here to the EDGE District." The timeline is long. Stacks estimated three to five years to build it, since the city still needs to find funding for design and construction. The July report also said the city had to close on the purchase by the end of July or go back to Council for an extension.

The Gas Plant site at the trail's south end is also still in progress. On July 2, 2026, the city selected the Pinellas County Housing Authority to build affordable senior housing and The Burg Bid to develop the larger site. The city's project page says both proposals now move into negotiations, and final agreements need City Council approval before construction can start. Until the trail is built, the festival walk is a preview of the foot traffic it's meant to bring to the EDGE, which sits along the corridor at Ferg's.

Planning a four-day loop

The festival describes the EDGE as compact enough to explore on foot. It has trolley stops, SunRunner stations, bike and sharrow lanes, free two-hour parking, paid lots, valet and drop-off areas. The festival's host hotels are Mint House St. Pete and the Moxy, and both also have art on display. The daily schedule and the artist-drawn map were both still listed as "coming soon" in late October.

Here's one way to spread it out:

1. Thursday evening: Start with the opening-night display. Then cover the 900 block, from Fusillo Pasta to Grassroots Kava, with an early dinner at Casa Origen.
2. Friday: Walk the 1000 block, where eleven venues sit within about half a block of each other, from Bobbles & Lace to COPA St. Pete.
3. Saturday: Walk the 1100 to 1400 blocks, then loop back along 1st Avenue North past VIV, CASA Thrift Store and Hope Beauty + Wellness. Stay for the evening awards ceremony.
4. Sunday morning: Finish any blocks you missed and cast your People's Choice votes before the noon announcement.

The rest of that weekend

The festival overlaps with four other events around the city, so it's easy to fill out the weekend:

Sunday works well as a two-stop afternoon. After the People's Choice awards at noon in the EDGE, Kenwood's porches start at 1 p.m. The Historic Kenwood neighborhood association suggests bringing your own folding chairs and cash for tips, and it posts the full porch schedule as a PDF.

At Angie Richison, we pay attention to how local events and city projects like the Booker Creek Trail change how a neighborhood gets used day to day, because those details shape what a home is worth to the next buyer. If you live near the EDGE or Kenwood and want to know how projects like these affect your home's value, request a free market analysis.