CITC Food & Music Festival
The City of Richardson's flagship cultural festival, bringing music, food, and dozens of local cultures together in the heart of The CORE District.
Richardson has invested in its downtown through The CORE District, a redevelopment effort that has reshaped the city's historic center into an active commercial and cultural area. CITC Food & Music Festival is the City's way of putting that investment to use: a free festival built specifically to celebrate the hundreds of global cultures represented among Richardson's residents, with vendors, live performances, and cultural displays from local groups throughout the afternoon. Richardson has been recognized as one of the "best foodie cities" in Texas for its range of ethnic cuisines, and the festival's food and drink offerings reflect that reputation. ESW manages full event operations for the City.
CITC Food & Music Festival is produced by the City of Richardson as the flagship of several events the City holds to celebrate its cultural diversity. The 2026 edition moves to Interurban Common, a 2.5-acre park in Downtown Richardson that opened in April 2025 with two pavilions, a trail, solar lighting, and landscaping designed to host community events. The event is free and open to the public, with local vendors, live music and dance performances, and cultural arts programming.
CITC Food & Music Festival has run annually since 2023, growing from a single-afternoon cultural celebration into a full day of music, food, and community programming across Richardson's CORE District. In 2024, the festival paired for one year with Light Up Lockwood, another CORE District tradition, before returning to its own standalone format in 2025. Recent editions have featured performances from groups including Chamber Music International, Polyphonic Dallas, and the Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico, alongside remarks from City Council. The 2026 edition marks the festival's fifth year and its first at Interurban Common, the City's newly built park in Downtown Richardson.
Full event production for the City of Richardson's flagship cultural festival.
CITC Food & Music Festival takes place in a mixed-use area of Richardson's downtown, requiring thoughtful site planning around streets, parking, and public space. ESW coordinates directly with the City on layout, vendor placement, entertainment staging, and programming flow. The move to Interurban Common gives the festival a built-for-purpose home: pavilions, a shaded trail, and landscaped gathering areas that the production plan is designed around, giving attendees more defined spaces for vendors and performances than a flat open plaza would allow.
Key Project Leads
“CITC Food & Music Festival is one of those events where the City's investment in its downtown and the event itself really reinforce each other. Moving to Interurban Common this year is a good example. It's a brand new park, and helping it host its first major festival is exactly the kind of project we like being part of.”
“Working on CITC Food & Music Festival is really about weaving together the incredible diversity of Richardson. My role is to bring together a wonderful variety of multicultural performers, food vendors, and community groups to make sure every single participant has exactly what they need to shine. Helping the City bring all of those unique backgrounds together into one vibrant, cohesive celebration is fun!”
CITC Food & Music Festival is a free annual festival the City of Richardson puts on for its residents, now in its fifth year and moving to a new home at Interurban Common. ESW manages all operational elements: site layout, vendor placement, entertainment staging, and teardown, coordinating directly with the City from planning through execution.
Free
Public Admission
No cost, no registration, open to all residents and visitors
5th
Annual Tradition
Fifth consecutive year of the festival since 2023
CORE
District Presence
A flagship event within Richardson's five-neighborhood CORE District
2026
New Venue
First year at Interurban Common, a newly opened 2.5-acre park
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