Overview Main Street Drag takes Houston's art cars to people who can't get downtown for the parade. On the Thursday morning of Houston Art Car Parade Weekend, around 100 art cars split up. The caravans then drive five mini-parade routes to schools, hospitals, nursing homes and developmental centers across the city. The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art runs it with the parade's volunteer committee, and police escorts move the cars safely from stop to stop. On site The caravans set off from the Orange Show World Headquarters on Gulf Terminal Drive in the East End and return there by early afternoon. At each stop the cars pull into a parking lot or courtyard, and artists walk students, patients and residents around their builds and explain how they made them. Kids crowd in close. The presenting partner gets a seat on a route and can hand out branded giveaways at the stops. Audience Schoolchildren and teachers, hospital patients and staff, nursing home residents and the families around them. The caravans reach more than 30,000 people in a typical year, most of whom would otherwise never see the parade. Talent and Influencers The stars are the art car artists: professional sculptors, backyard welders, lowrider builders and school teams who spent months on their cars. Many builders call the Drag their favorite part of the weekend. On the parade route they get a few seconds with each face in the crowd; here they get a real conversation. Track record The Drag began as an impromptu procession by artists David Best and Paul Kittelson the day before an early parade, and grew into a standing program with several caravans. It opens a weekend that draws more than 300,000 people to the parade downtown. Brand presence The presenting partner names the Drag and appears on signage along the routes and in the Art Car Program. Road Guardian partners help pay for the police escorts, and route partners each back a single caravan. Team Gillman presents the full parade weekend, with H-E-B, Saint Arnold Brewing and Silver Eagle Distributors among the festival's backers.