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Festival season brings thousands to Downtown Corpus Christi this fall

Downtown Corpus Christi is expecting back-to-back busy weekends with Surftoberfest followed by the Dia de los Muertos Festival.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Jazz Festival is expected to draw up to 25,000 people to Heritage Park and the Downton Corpus Christi area. 

And that's not the only big event taking place this weekend, in what has turned to be a pretty busy October for festivals, some calling it the 'second summer', which means big crowds and lots of traffic. 

"The Art walk they had the first Friday, if we are going to talk about parking, parking was insane," said college student Claire Janson, who loves spending time downtown.

Janson loves seeing downtown thrive year round but it also brings traffic.

"The parking situation down here is hard, you never really know where you can be and specifically is blocked off," she said. 

Daniela Campos with the Corpus Christi Downtown Management District said the organization has worked for years to help downtown become what it offers today, including all the festivities.

"There's a lot happening downtown and I don't think people realize it's a fun way the community to come together and to really appreciate all the cultural through art, music, food," she said. 

The Corpus Christi Regional Transit Authority is offering free shuttle rides from places like city hall and the Nueces County Courthouse to accommodate all the crowds heading to Jazz Fest at Heritage Park. 

Residents can also head down to Executive Surf Club and Water Street Market for Surftoberfest, which is a twist on Octoberfest.

"Festival we've been doing nine years in a row it all goes to support the Texas Surf Conservancy," Adrienne Trevino with the Executive Surf Club said.

Crews are expecting a couple thousand residents to attend the event, that's also free.

"I give a lot of support to Visit Corpus Christi, Downtown Management District, they've done a lot to really keep this area thriving and bringing people into Corpus year round," she said.

If you are heading that way, plan ahead.

"Closures are going to be from Lomax to Lawrence, so we are only taking a small portion of street parking, so we've left the majority of all other parking lots and garages, all of that will be available to people downtown," she said.

The activity isn't cooling down anytime soon.

Next weekend one of the top Dia de los Muertos festivals in the U.S. is happening, you guessed it, right in the heart of downtown Corpus Christi.

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