Sidewalk Chalk Festival 2024

Chopper Roan joined the Pink Tauntaun Club, Rey took on breakdancing Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn style, and we got a glimpse inside the mind of Anakin Skywalker at this year’s Lucasfilm Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival. On October 10, a beautiful fall day at both our San Francisco and Burbank offices, Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic employees competed in the annual event, bringing coworkers together to collaborate on pieces of street art. Beginning in 2012, the festival has become a treasured tradition amongst employees.

With small bites, sweet treats, and music for everyone to enjoy, the festival is a must-see event. At our San Francisco offices, the event falls in the midst of Fleet Week — a collection of air shows, ship parades, and other various community events — where passersby get treated to the spectacular sight of the U. S. Navy Blue Angels soaring overhead.

Employees creating art work at the Lucasfilm sidewalk chalk festival.

One of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels flies overhead. — An F/A-18 Super Hornet of the U. S. Navy Blue Angels soars over Lucasfilm headquarters.

Artists created sprawling pieces on their respective eight-by-eight squares, pulling inspiration from movies like Star Wars and Inside Out 2 as well as current pop culture references. Mackenzie, an ILM associate production manager on the Virtual Production Stage, described what it was like to combine the two inspirations for her team’s piece, a crossover of Twisters with The Mandalorian, both of which she and her team members have worked on. “We were really excited to combine different projects we’ve worked on and hopefully bring home another win. Mando kind of has a cowboy effect and so does [Twisters actor] Glen Powell and we thought what a better combination than having two of our favorite cowboys in one piece of art.”

Chalk art mixing Twisters and The Mandalorian.

Chalk art featuring Anger from Inside Out as

Chalk art that takes inside Darth Vader/Anakin's mind, including fear, anger, hate, suffering.

There were plenty of crossovers to be seen, including a piece featuring Anger from Inside Out as the cover of “Angor” – a fun play-on-words from the Star Wars series Andor. Other pieces included a battle between LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy characters Darth Jar Jar and Darth Nubs, a Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew crossover centered around the droid SM-33, and a square highlighting the beloved sidekicks from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars: Outlaws, BD-1 and Nix.

The process of designing the squares can be long, with some people arriving as early as 7 a.m. to begin. “I was the first person to get here because there was no way I was missing a moment of this,” said Crew, a Lucasfilm asset coordinator, who worked on the Pirates mashup. “I was up all night drawing our reference images. It feels amazing being out here and seeing everyone’s awesome ideas.”

Children at the on-site child care center are also given a square to share their art with the community. “We all came up with the idea together, kind of practiced drawing in class, and then came down and I try to incorporate them into it as much as I can without it being overtaken by them,” said John, a preschool teacher. “This is my sixth year doing it with the classes. The kids love it. A lot of their parents work here so they’re into Star Wars.” Their effort paid off, with a beautiful rendition of Darth Vader holding a Yoda-shaped balloon standing in front of a rainbow.

With participants from across the whole company, the festival fosters an environment of creativity and collaboration. “This festival allows everybody to kind of get together and share creativity in a lot of different ways,” said Olivia, a Lucasfilm technology production coordinator. “It’s just really great to be able to see everybody’s work and ideas.”

Our Burbank teams have been enjoying the fun as well, joining alongside our San Francisco offices for the second year in a row. “This event really captures our company vibe,” said Sabrina, a Lucasfilm publicity department coordinator. “It’s a great way for us to connect and have fun together outside of work. Plus, it shows that we care about making things together. It’s a fantastic way to celebrate our talent and innovation while making some really good memories.”