WEEKEND BEST BET: Sarasota Chalk Festival

The Sarasota Chalk Festival, featuring 250 street painters from the U.S., Italy, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands and Slovenia, takes place from 8 a.m. to midnight Oct. 30 to Oct. 31, along South Pineapple Avenue in Burns Square.

Approximately 40,000 people are expected to attend the festival, which will feature a 3-D oversized illusion from “Maestro Madonnaro” Edgar Mueller, from Germany. Touted as the first international street-painting festival in America, the event also brings together artists such as Tracy Lee Stum, Leon Keer, Henry Darnell and Lori Escalara, who will create one-of-a-kind paintings that stretch to 82 feet.

A Little Chalk’ers area allows festival-goers to create their own 2-by-2-foot chalk paintings as part of an artistic quilt that will measure 40-by-100 feet long.

Other family activities include a pumpkin-carving contest, HallowScreen Film Festival and a professional vampire couture runway show.

All proceeds benefit Avenida de Colores Inc., a non-profit organization for students in the visual and performing arts. For information, call 374-4790 or visit www.chalkfestival.com.