McKinney residents get to pick the face of this fall's MoonFest. The Texas Women Society, which organizes the McKinney Asian Art and Food Festival, has opened a People's Choice vote on 32 poster designs competing to represent the 2026 festival, and voting runs through July 28.
The designs are displayed in the order they were submitted on the festival's website, each with the artist's own statement, and an online form lets visitors choose their favorite. The winning artwork receives the People's Choice Award and may become the festival's official poster.
The entries take their cues from this year's festival theme, the pinwheel, chosen as a symbol of "Feng Tiao Yu Shun," a traditional blessing meaning favorable winds and gentle rains that represents harmony, peace and prosperity. Submission titles range from "Pinwheel Geisha" and "Moonlight White Rabbit" to "Many Cultures One Community" and "Every Culture Brings Color to Our Community."
The festival itself, known as McKinney MoonFest, returns October 2 and 3 at 401 E. Virginia St. in downtown McKinney, with Asian cuisine, traditional and contemporary art, and live performances timed to the season of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Inside one of the entries
Dao Nguyen, a Vietnamese designer living in McKinney, submitted Design No. 10, a poster built around a giant pinwheel whose blades each carry a flower from a different Asian culture, with families walking together beneath it.
Her entry is one of the 32 on the ballot, all of which appear on the showcase page. She answered a few questions for McKinney Weekly about the work.
On roots, and on McKinney
Asked how her dual perspective shaped the poster, and whether anything specific about the city made it into the design, Nguyen said: "Being Vietnamese gives me the roots, living in McKinney gives me the way I see those roots now.
"From my Vietnamese side, I brought the blessing, the flowers, and family walking as one group, grandparents, parents, kids together. The pinwheel is chong chóng, a childhood toy we made from paper and bamboo. The ao dai in the front row is intentional, it is how I show respect while being part of the group, not apart from it.
"From my McKinney side, I brought the spirit. McKinney is a family town where people say hello on the trail and at the farmers market, and it gets more diverse every year."
On the dish the poster does not show
The festival is as much about food as art, but her poster leads with the pinwheel and the families. Asked which dish belonged in the design, Nguyen said: "I led with the pinwheel and families because food brings us to the table, but joy and community are why we stay.
