It’s Art Car Week again in Houston. For hundreds of thousands of people it’s Art Car Parade time again. The parade rolls at 1pm on Saturday. It starts staging at 10am, and the best way to check out the cars is to get there early and walk up and down the staging area. Often the artists are around and they are always willing to answer questions.

There are many other events that go on throughout the week. Wednesday night has a welcome to town gathering. Thursday night is the unaffiliated Art Car Ball. It’s an amazing thing to experience.

Friday morning is the Main Street Drag. Ten groups of cars visit schools and hospitals allong ten different routes. Police escorts can be seen for hours leading small groups of cars all across the city.

Friday night is a gathering at Discovery Green. Two bands performing live music and art cars everywhere.

Saturday is the main event. After the parade is an After Party at the Meridian on the east side of downtown. Leaving from there is the Nightime Illuminated Cruise which is unofficial and who’s route is unpublished. But it goes all night and often has live music on a float following it.

This year will be memorializing two losses in the art car world. Tom Jones, curator of the Art Car Museum, died after the parade last year, from an injury sustained while sitting on the curb with friends outside the museum after a long day’s work. Tom Kennedy, early Houston-based art car artist, was recently drowned in rip-currents in California.

Both will be long remembered and often mentioned this weekend.