Main Street 1 was the name given to a Salute to the Arts to be held Downtown—a weekend happening of celebrations highlighting the performing and visual arts, on the sidewalks, streets, and store windows located between Dallas and McKinney on Main Street. Sakowitz and Foleys Department Stores, and the Cultural Affairs Committee of the Houston Chamber of Commerce, with Mayor Louie Welch's blessing, sponsored the event. It was the beginning of the cultural salute that grew and evolved into today's Houston International Festival.

Houston's Main Street Art Happening was moved from Downtown (where the City Ordinance prohibited street closings) to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and its grounds across from the Contemporary Arts Museum, still on Main but now more "mid-town". This attempt at an outdoor-indoor celebration created safety concerns with crowds of pedestrians crossing streets, so in...

 

The Art Happening moved to Hermann Park, near the Museum. It was expanded to two weekends to help minimize the risk of inclement weather affecting attendance.

 

The event was named "The Houston Festival", and remained so for the next ten years. The organizational structure changed, with the creation of The Houston Festival Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit with its own Board of Directors and budget, separate from the Houston Chamber of Commerce sponsorship. The Foundation still remains the producing entity today.

The Festival moved back downtown, this time with two stages across from the Alley Theatre and Jones Hall, at what is now Jones Plaza. Attendance grew but expansion was limited in that site.

 

The Festival moved to a larger potential site at Market Square, in order to accommodate the growing number of participants and attendees.

The City of Houston signed an Ordinance proclaiming the Houston Festival as an official City-sponsored salute to the arts, and permitted the event to expand and locate at the Sam Houston Park area of Downtown Houston.

 

"Rendezvous Houston," highlighting the anniversaries of Houston and the Texas Sesquicentennial celebrations and was one of the biggest events ever staged in Houston, was produced as the centerpiece of the Houston Festival. Lasers and fireworks danced above and around the skyscrapers downtown accompanied by French composer Jean-Michel Jarre's original music compositions. The 1.3 million people in attendance and the national media were all astonished at the event which is still remembered proudly to this day.

The Festival Foundation, whose structure was overtaxed by the costs of organizing the 1986 event and chaffing from the resulting financial fallout from the "Rendezvous"' set out to recover from the consequences and re-structure the organization. Then Festival President Dr. James Austin was hired in late summer 1986, and with the Board set out to re-examine the path and future for the Festival. This began the expansion of the basic concepts of the event, adding the now-established education and business collaborations and programs.

 

The name of the celebration was changed to "The Houston International Festival" to celebrate Houston's role as an international city, highlight it's ethnic diversity, and better educate the youth of the Houston in the arts and cultures of other countries. Following this event, a plan was developed to spotlight the arts and cultures of an individual country or region of the world each year, with request for assistance from the participating governments at the highest levels possible.

Australia was the first country of honor, with the international theme presenting an amalgam of that country's culture and arts: visual, performing, culinary, as well as an all-day business inter-change with Australian and Texan businesses. A different country or region in alternate parts of the globe were to be selected for the "spotlight" thereafter, although the Festival continued to build more performing stages to ensure on-going presentations of arts from throughout the world during the two week event.

1989 continued the new pattern with the spotlight on France, followed by The United Kingdom (1990); Japan (1991); Spain & the New World (1992); Mexico (1993); Italy (1994); Turkey (1995); West Africa (1996); China (1997); Islands of the Caribbean (1998); Southern Africa (1999); Brazil for the 2000 Millennium; Ireland (2001); and a revisit to France in 2002 and Mexico in 2003. After twenty years, the City Ordinance regarding the Festival's unique status lapsed, and downtown Houston is in the throes of a major renaissance of urban development and street improvements. Possible congestion and other factors present the Foundation with the need for an examination for alternative sites. The Houston International Festival moves south, this time following the tracks of the METRO's new light rail transportation line for better access and more space to Reliant Park.

The Houston International Festival turns towards Asia with its first spotlight on Thailand at Festival Plaza at Reliant Park. Five Asian elephants join the programming mix in a special appeal to families.

The Houston International Festival turned its spotlight on India in 2005, Jamaica in 2006 and China in 2007.

The Houston International Festival offered a twist to the honored country theme.The theme for iFest 2008, "Out of Africa: the Three Journeys," celebrated the rich history, achievements, contributions and triumphs of African people in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, the United States and the rest of the world. The first journey was the story of human origins, the voluntary migration of humanity out of Africa into the rest of the world; the second journey was the forced migration out of Africa due to enslavement and colonialism; and the third journey was the story of post-colonial, independent Africa into the 21st century.

iFest returned to the honored country theme and revisited the rich culture of Ireland.  Ireland is one of the world's most popular and fastest growing tourist destinations and its influence was infused throughout the entire festival from the music and main stages to the educational exhibits.

The Houston International Festival turned its spotlight on the beautiful countries of the The Caribbean. From art to food to music, the Carribbean was represented well with special nods to Jamaica, The Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago.

 

iFest followed the adventures of Marco Polo as it celebrated China, India and other cultures of the Silk Road. Houston Festival explorers experienced a cultural journey along the world’s first “internet,” a trade route stretching 5,000 miles across Eurasia and North Africa. 

 

2012