Street Fair

Before returning to Youngstown, my family and I lived in Tucson for seven years. One of our favorite events was the biannual Fourth Avenue Street Fair. According to the official Web site, the event features “400+ arts and crafts booths, 35+ food vendors, 2 stages, street musicians, food, jugglers, street performers, ‘VAN GROW’ kids hands-on-art area, face painting, balloons, and tons of other fun activities.”

The place was packed with artists, sculptors, woodcarvers, painters, baskets, clothes, pottery, music … and people. This isn’t a solution to the problem of a true, permanent gallery for the display of locally made art, but it would be a great venue. Maybe Commerce Street would be a good, wide location. I’m not sure Federal, at least W Federal, provides enough space, with the medians (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Is there any street fair currently going on downtown? I heard there might be one associated with Phelps and a gentleman named Velani? Does anyone know more? How is it? How big is it?

Tucson collects a fee of $35 for an initial review and judging of applicants. Once selected, users reserve a booth for three days. We’ve gotten many great finds there, and it would be wonderful to have that opportunity to sample local and national artists’ creations and eclectic energy.

They use a site called zapplication.org to facilitate the collection of and communication regarding each booth application. We might be able to leverage that, too. What organizations would we need to partner with? Is there a merchants association?

Use the comments below to continue the conversation with your thoughts…

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