Apopka Murals is set to bring the city’s first Mural Madness tournament and festival to downtown Apopka on March 14-15. 

“The main goal is really to bring people to downtown Apopka and let people know that this is a new breed of Apopka coming through,” said Apopka Murals founder Luis Rivera. 

The event will run from noon to 6 p.m. next weekend at 36 E Main St. and feature four competitions. Guest musicians and food trucks will entertain crowds as they watch the signature mural contest, Art Blitz, No Borders competition and chalk art contest. 

Although Rivera has been gathering sponsorships and vendors for the event, Mural Madness is the brainchild of Apopka Murals artist Jordan Jones, who painted the peacock mural behind Central Florida Tang Soo Do. He said he was inspired to start Apopka’s own mural festival after several of his friends did not make it into an Orlando festival. 

“I know how it feels to be denied, and I put a [social media] post encouraging other artists that didn’t get in to keep going and keep striving,” Jones said. “Someone just commented, ‘Oh, we should put our own mural festival on’ — kind of as a joke, they said it. But my brain just started going.” 

Jones said he reached out to Rivera about the idea in mid-October. After Jones opened applications for the mural contest, he received over 60 submissions and eventually narrowed them down to 20. 

“[I was] looking at their professionalism, their skill, their technique, their style — if they have consistent styles,” Jones said. “If they have more of an abstract style, does it look like they solidified their style, or are they still exploring, or they’re still kind of figuring it out?” 

The mural tournament’s first two rounds will occur on Saturday, March 14. In the first round, all 20 artists will get an hour and a half to paint on a two-foot by two-foot panel. The top 10 artists will then advance to the second round, where they will have three hours to paint on a four-foot by four-foot panel. 

The top five artists from the second round will advance to Sunday’s final round, in which they will paint on the walls of the alley next to McLeod Law Firm. Apopka Murals will present the winner $1,000 and the runner-up $500. The artist whose mural receives the most votes from the audience will receive $300. 

Rivera said he hopes this year’s festival will be just the beginning of Mural Madness and similar events. 

“We’re really all putting our heart and our money [into revitalizing downtown Apopka], investing in ourselves and our dreams and hoping that people take notice and come down here and enjoy it — because the more people come down here and trust it, the more we don’t have to say that we have to go somewhere else to enjoy it,” Rivera said. “Everybody can do their part, which is awesome, and our part is putting on an art competition and keeping the art alive downtown, nice and fresh, new artists, new opportunities for people, and new Apopka.”