More On Houston Art Car Weekend

The art-car block party will be from 6 to 11 p.m. Friday on Main Street between Preston and Congress, as well as at Market Square.

More than 100 art cars will be in the vicinity. Performers on the streets and in clubs will include the Dancing Elvises, Two Star Symphony, Clouseaux and Medicine Show. The art-car film Auto Morphosis will be screened at 7 p.m. at Treebeards, 208 Travis ($5 admission).

Friday morning will bring the Main Street Drag, with more than 100 art cars fanning out in seven convoys from the Children's Museum, 1500 Binz. From 9:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m., they'll spread the festive message of art cars to kids in hospitals and schools.

(As long as you are there: Dining in Downtown Houston.)

The crowning event, Everyones Art Car Parade, will be from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday. No admission is charged, and the public is invited. KPRC Channel 2 will broadcast a tape of the parade at 7 p.m. May 15 and at 11 p.m. May 16.

Starting at Allen Parkway and Taft, 269 art cars will wheel into downtown, including 116 first-time entries.

Last year, an estimated 77,000 persons viewed the parade. Concessions will be sold along the Allen Parkway route. For more information on the parade route, go to www.orangeshow.org/artcar_map.html.

Sunday events will include a "Surreal Brunch" and block party at the Orange Show, 2401 Munger. For the first time, art-car winners will be named there. In the past, winners were named along the parade route.

The 14 categories will include best painted, best performance, best contraption, best political statement and best entry by a youth group. Winners will receive a total of $9,800 in cash prizes.

Barbecue, breakfast tacos and mimosas will be served at 11 a.m., with awards given at noon. The brunch will end at 3 p.m. There's no charge to attend the brunch, but the food will be sold.

Founded in 1988 by the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, art-car activities will be sponsored for the first time this year by Everyones Internet, or Ev1.Net.

A separate event staged by the art-car creators is the third annual Artists Art Car Ball, to be held from 7 p.m. till midnight tonight at Talento Bilingüe de Houston, 333 S. Jensen at Navigation. Cost is $20 at the door; no advance sales. There will be food and a cash bar, with music by the Fanatics, the John Evans Band and the Paladins.