Overview The Tempe Festival of the Arts fills Mill Avenue in downtown Tempe with more than 350 juried artists' booths twice a year, over a three-day weekend in early December and again in March, and the fall festival has run for more than 50 years. The work is hand-made and for sale, admission is free and dogs are welcome. Downtown Tempe Authority and the Downtown Tempe Foundation produce it. The organization dates to 1993 and puts on more than 25 event days a year in the downtown district, which it says draw over 500,000 people. On site Booths line Mill Avenue and the streets around it. Around the corner on 4th Street, west of Mill, Chalk-A-Lot Street hands up to ten muralists a section of pavement each to draw live over Saturday and Sunday to the festival's theme - Hidden Wonders: Discover the Extraordinary for fall 2026 - and visitors vote for a People's Choice alongside the Best Mural award. The Wine and Spirits Tasting sets up on the shaded grass of Centerpoint Plaza, with the festival and downtown on every side, where Arizona wineries and distilleries pour against tokens into a festival glass that guests keep and bring back. Beer and wine gardens, food trucks, a Kids Block and local music fill in the rest. Audience The booths sell hand-made work direct from the artists, who come in from around the country. Families head for the Kids Block and dogs come along on the street. Downtown Tempe markets each event to its own set of more than 15 audience personas and shares those profiles with sponsors. Track record Sunshine Artist magazine has repeatedly ranked it among its Top 100 Classic and Contemporary Craft Shows, and the International Festivals and Events Association has given it a Pinnacle Award. Each festival runs on about 350 volunteers. Brand presence A presenting sponsor takes one festival, fall or spring, and the name reads "Tempe Festival of the Arts presented by" the sponsor, with its logo on the banner towers along Mill Avenue, a 10-by-10 booth on the avenue itself, mentions from the main stage and a slide in the festival's Digital Guide. Lower levels scale down to a booth in a high-traffic spot, banners on site, newsletter placement and VIP guest access to the artist reception, the Wine and Spirits Tasting and the hospitality tent. Smaller sponsors can attach to a single piece of programming, such as the Kids Block or Chalk-A-Lot.