Over the years, the Ellen Noel Art Museum’s West Texas Fest has been a bit of a nomad, but this year it has found a home in downtown at Fifth street and Texas Avenue.
Saturday’s rendition will be the sixth annual edition of the West Texas Fest.
The event is a fundraiser put on the Ellen Noel Art Museum to help raise money necessary to continue the museum’s mission in providing quality art exhibitions, educational programs/workshops for all ages, free community art days, and much more for the Permian Basin.
“We’re definitely excited,” board member and chair of the West Texas Fest Dillon Noel said. “It’s one of the biggest fundraisers for the museum. We’ve had it in multiple locations in the past. This year, we’re moving it to downtown Odessa. It’ll be the first year there, so we’re looking for a bigger turnout with more space that’s more accessible to the public.”
Noel museum officials are excited to be partnering with Downtown Odessa and help them bring more life downtown and get more of a scene there.
“In the past, it used to be at the Willows,” Noel said. “But that place got sold. We bounced around some different places like Midland Shooters Association, but it was too far away from everybody.”
Two years ago, the event didn’t take place in-person due to the pandemic.
“In 2020, we did party-in-a-box filled with alcohol and goodies and sold that it instead of having an event,” Noel said.
The event will include beer and spirit tastings, a cornhole tournament, country music courtesy of Caleb Young from Monahans and food truck vendors.
“There will be the tastings which will be the main thing,” Noel said. “We’ll have cornhole and axe throwing. We will be selling stuff for the capital campaign for the museum. We’re undergoing renovations and are raising money for that. It’s food trucks and liquor and beer tastings.”
Downtown Odessa Executive Director Casey Hallmark talked about the excitement level about hosting this year’s West Texas Fest.
“We’re really excited to have this event come to downtown,” Hallmark said. “It’s been a really successful event. They haven’t found a permanent home, so we reached out to them to hopefully make downtown their permanent home. You can’t outgrow downtown. There’s plenty of room for expansion. It just brings a vibrancy of downtown. Hopefully, it opens the public to downtown even more.”
Tickets are on sale at tinyurl.com/y7vmzcmx.
Tickets are $60 per person and include admission, four tastings and one food voucher for a local vendor with an option to purchase more.
“This is just one of their biggest fundraisers, and we hope the public comes out and supports them and shows other organizations that downtown is a prime location for your event,” Hallmark said. “The public support shows these organizations that bringing their events to downtown can be beneficial.”
If you go
- What: West Texas Fest.
- When: 7-10 p.m. Sept. 24.
- Where: Intersection of 5th Street and Texas Avenue.
- Where to purchase tickets: tinyurl.com/y7vmzcmx
