Water Street Festival returns Oct. 24 — and a three-year-old’s dance at Francisco’s is why

Delayne Sigerman remembers exactly what last year’s Water Street Festival felt like. Her three-year-old granddaughter was standing in front of Francisco’s restaurant, listening to local musician Corey Weaver, and dancing.

“That’s what I think of,” Sigerman said Monday on The Lead Live’s Nonprofit Week. “That’s what the festival is.”

Sigerman, a Kerrville City Councilmember, appeared to promote the second annual Water Street Festival — Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. — and to make the case that community events are not optional extras in a flood recovery economy. They are economic survival.

“Once we get people back in their homes,” she said, “we really are going to have to think about how we keep businesses alive. Those tourist dollars help everybody.”

The festival closes Water and Earl Garrett Streets to vehicle traffic, creating a pedestrian and pet-friendly corridor through the heart of downtown. Activities include a farmers’ market, a kids’ activity center, a kids’ parade at 1 p.m., live music, and free booths for local nonprofits. Other vendors pay $50. The Kerr Arts and Cultural Center’s outdoor plein air painters will move through the festival creating live works. That same evening, the Rocky Horror Picture Show shadow cast performs at the Arcadia Live.

Sigerman described the post-flood business environment as one where every event and every tourist dollar carries weight it did not carry before — and every empty park or closed venue represents a signal the wrong audience is receiving.

“We can’t ignore the fact we still have to do a lot of cleanup,” she said. “But we also want to keep our business doors open.”

Vendor registration and full festival information: waterstreetfestival.org.