The ViBe's Ten New Murals Are Up, and November Is the Time to Walk Them
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
The ten painting days ended October 11. The artists and the festival crowds are gone, and ten new professional murals remain across the ViBe and Atlantic Park, along with one by a student artist. Silas Baker's mural is at 418 18th Street and Jeff Tarkenton's is down the block at 401 18th Street. Abby Pawley's covers a wall at Barrel 17 on Mediterranean Avenue. Ed Trask's is at Atlantic Park Surf.
From Birdneck Point, the ViBe Creative District is the nearest place to see a lot of public art in one walk. This year's festival changed what that walk covers. For the first time, the route runs through Atlantic Park as well as the older arts blocks, and the murals will stay up long after the festival.
The ViBe Creative District nonprofit described the 9th Annual ViBe Mural Festival as "10 new murals in 10 days." It ran October 2 through 11, 2026, and Atlantic Park was the presenting sponsor. The 10-day schedule gave the public time to watch the artists work and talk with them.
The more lasting detail is further down the festival's September 23 media advisory. The property owners agreed to keep the murals for at least two years and to put up a sponsor plaque naming the funders and the artist. The nonprofit spent the past year choosing the sites from locally owned businesses and property owners who asked to take part.
So the ten days were only the installation, and the murals will be on view through at least fall 2028. Because the businesses applied for their walls, each mural belongs to a storefront that wanted one.
Until this year the festival stayed inside the arts district. In 2026 it put four murals in the Atlantic Park development and six in the older ViBe blocks. The organizers said they wanted to connect the two areas and bring the city's art and surf culture together. Brittany Baer Albert, Operations & Development Manager at Venture Realty Group, which developed Atlantic Park, said in the advisory that she hoped the murals would "spark inspiration, connection and conversation for locals and visitors alike."
All ten sites are within a 1.8-mile walk. Grouped by area, the route looks like this:
Atlantic Park and 20th Street
18th and 19th Streets
Mediterranean and Baltic Avenues
17th Street and Virginia Beach Boulevard
There is also an eleventh wall to add to the loop. Valentina Arciniegas Gil, the festival's featured teen muralist, painted at Zero's. Atlantic Park Surf's festival page says she earned a scholarship and painted alongside the ten professionals.
The artist profiles give some idea of what each painter brings. ViBe's featured-muralist page says Devon Miller's recent murals keep coming back to hands, the sun and the sea. It describes Poetry Jackson's work as using color and portraiture to celebrate culture, identity, joy and resilience. Peter Davis calls his work visual puzzles that each viewer reads in their own way, often with a social or environmental message. On her own site, Abby Pawley lists the Barrel 17 wall as an October 2026 project. She calls it a redesign that shows how her work has grown and keeps part of her personal story. Seeing the walls in person is the only way to check how those descriptions turned out.
The ViBe Mural Festival page links to a public Google map of the murals and a printable walking map. You can use either to walk the route on your own at any time.
If you'd rather have a guide explain what you're looking at, the district's November calendar has three free tours. All three meet at the LOVE sign at 18th Street and Cypress Avenue.
| Date | Time | Format | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday, November 1 | 2 to 4 p.m. | Guided bike tour | Free, no registration; bring your own bike and safety gear |
| Friday, November 6 | 6 to 7:30 p.m. | First Friday walking tour | Free, no signup needed |
| Saturday, November 14 | 10 to 11:30 a.m. | Second Saturday walking tour | Free, about one mile on foot |
The November 1 bike tour is this coming Sunday, the first day of November. It is also the only one that covers the full 1.8-mile spread with ease, since Atlantic Park and Virginia Beach Boulevard are at opposite ends of the route. The November 14 walking tour covers about a mile, so it fits a Saturday morning.
The two Saturday morning markets, which were part of festival programming on October 3 and 10, run on different winter calendars. The Old Beach Farmers Market sets up on 18th Street and the Old Beach Art & Eco Market in ViBe Park on Cypress Avenue, both from 9 a.m. to noon. The farmers market also has a new Farm Aid mural, painted outside the ten festival sites.
October 31 is the last Saturday of the weekly season. From then on the two calendars disagree:
Both calendars include November 21, so it's the safest Saturday to plan around. If you want the November 14 walking tour and a market the same morning, check the Art & Eco Market's page that week before you go.
The October 31 market falls on Wicked 10K weekend. The city's road-closure page lists closures for October 30 and 31 and says Birdneck Road will stay open on the 31st, while several Oceanfront streets close and traffic is detoured. Check the city's road-closure page before driving south that morning.
For parking, the festival guidance listed free parking on 18th Street near ViBe Park and the Convention Center, and metered parking on 19th Street and in Atlantic Park. That guidance was written for the festival, but the layout hasn't changed. The free 18th Street spaces are a block from the LOVE sign, where all three November tours start.
Several of the mural hosts are also places to stop for food or a drink, including Wiseguy Pizza, Milk & Honey and Barrel 17. One newer stop isn't a festival site. Rose's, a hi-fi restaurant and bar, opened in May 2026 at 325 Virginia Beach Boulevard, according to The Virginian-Pilot. It's on the same boulevard as Peter Davis's wall at the Lifesaving Offices, which is the far end of the route from Atlantic Park.
The Creative Well Arts Foundation at 536 Virginia Beach Boulevard was festival headquarters, where visitors helped paint an indoor mural in a paint-by-number style. It's also on the boulevard if you're putting together your own loop.
When you're back home on Linkhorn Bay and someone asks what's new in Virginia Beach, the team at Missy L'Hoste & Team would like to hear which mural you liked best. We keep track of what's opening, what's being painted and what's on the calendar around Birdneck Point. If you want to know how changes like these affect your own street, schedule a free local market consultation with us.
Our knowledge of the area will allow us to focus on the best strategy to not only achieve your goals, but to exceed your expectations. We know how to take control and get the job done to your complete satisfaction. Work with the team now!