A colorful festival could be making its debut in Oak Harbor this summer.

During a workshop meeting last week, the Oak Harbor Arts Commission presented to the city council its plan for the first “Pacific NW Chalkfest Whidbey Island,” an event that would feature chalk art by artists from Whidbey and other parts of the country.

The event would take place July 25-27 in Windjammer Park, embellishing the park just before the start of the yearly Sounds of Summer Concert Series on Aug. 2, according to Cynthia Mason, a member of the Arts Commission who presented the proposal.

Mason said the commission has been discussing the idea since October and was inspired by the Pacific NW Chalk Fest that takes place in Redmond and attracts over 50,000 people.

Mason believes the festival would foster the local arts scene and attract national and international attention, boosting the local pride, bringing revenue to local businesses and making Oak Harbor more appealing to prospective residents, business owners and tourists, thus supporting the city’s economic development.

The festival will feature artists of all ages and skill levels, divided in categories. The “copyists” will reproduce famous paintings, the “free artists” will create their own original, two-dimensional work, and the 3D artists will create their own fantastical or realistic art, Mason said. Children can have fun in the chalk garden or engage in other kids’ activities.

Visitors will have a chance to see the completed and in progress art while strolling through the park, Mason said. The commission is hoping for 1,500 to 5,000 to show up each day of the festival’s first edition.

If it rains, Mason said they would use canopies to protect the art and the artists. Furthermore, they would be using a long-lasting chalk, the same that was used to draw feathers around the angel sculpture. Remnants of those feathers are still visible, Mason said.

This isn’t the first chalk art event in the city. Last July, the Oak Harbor Main Street Association hosted the Chalk Art Contest, a free event on Pioneer Way with prizes and live music. In previous years, Main Street hosted the Art and Chalk Walk event. This year, the organization won’t be bringing back the events and has been supportive of the Arts Commission’s idea, Mason said.

The event is expected to cost $75,000, $23,000 of which the commission requested from the city. Mason said the commission had hoped the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee would match the $35,000 budgeted by the commission, but it ended up awarding $17,000 instead, leaving the commission in need of support from the council.

The council seemed generally in favor of the festival, though Councilmember Bryan Stucky and Mayor Pro Tempore Tara Hizon pointed out $75,000 is a big cost for an event in its first year. Stucky asked how many attendants there need to be for the festival to be deemed a success worth bringing back, to which Mason said 5,000 to be “very successful.”

Hizon, who said she loved the idea of the event, suggested starting with a smaller event and budget, though she added that it’s up to the commission to decide how to use their budget. Mason said she would rather not because Oak Harbor has a tendency of falling short of the original vision for events, and wants to do this right.

The council will make a vote on April 15, Mayor Ronnie Wright said.