Deep Ellum Arts Festival continues despite heavy rain Saturday morning

Saturday saw storms sweep through North Texas, with the strongest storms hitting just as vendors were setting up for the day at the Deep Ellum Arts Festival.

The festival started up at 11 a.m., and as crews were setting up, they dealt with a barrage of rain and lightning.

MORE: Deep Ellum Arts Festival organizers brace for severe weather

Artists like Alex Grimmer were forced to hoist their art up high as a heavy downpour led to minor flooding in artists’ tents.

“In my booth particularly, it's starting to flood a little bit, so I've had to put my stuff on chairs and stools and stuff,” Grimmer said.

A few booths down, artist Larry Pile, who works with glass -- first through church stain glass windows -- found what came from the heavens this day less appealing.

“It comes in many forms,” he said. “It's not always what we want.”

While the rain was a drag, it could have been worse.

With wind in the forecast, artists had tied and weighted down the tents, fearful that strong gusts could blow through and damage their work.

”We had to weight all our pieces on the back. We tied ourselves, our booth there and then our furniture we tied it on each corner,” said Rosa Velasquez, who came from Arizona.

But just a blast of rain was not enough to keep people from venturing out onto festival grounds for an event meant to showcase art.

“It's in a great, funky, fun part of town,” Pile added.

“They bring all these people in and they just have all these amazing artists,” Grimmer said.