The Avenues Street Fair

From The Avenues Street Fair Website:

We hope you were able to enjoy the 2017 Avenues Street Fair. Now it's time for planning for the 2018 Street Fair, to be held Saturday, September 8th. The first planning meeting will be held on March 10th at Sweet Library beginning at 10 AM. Anyone willing to volunteer is welcome to attend.

Mark your calendar now for the 2018 Fair, scheduled for Saturday, 8 September.

The Avenues Street Fair is held annually on the second Saturday of September. Each year we hold the Fair on a different street to highlight the varied and eclectic architecture of the Avenues community. The fair typically spans five blocks and features live entertainment at each end. Fair attendance is free to all. The Fair features and celebrates local talent and artistry. In addition, local food vendors, various government agencies, non-profit organizations and small businesses take the opportunity to be known in the community.

The Street Fair has its origins dating to 1978 when the Avenues Restoration Association began holding house tours, antiques sales, tool exchanges and parties on nearby lawns. Their first t-shirt depicted "God's finger" (a la Michelangelo) touching the Avenues. Later, as the Fair developed and expanded, vendors were added, home tours were dropped (the Utah Heritage Foundation now known as Preservation Utah conducts those) and bands such as Joe Mescolino and Brown Baggers donated music. Police provided barriers to close off the streets, neighbors pitched in their garbage cans and electricity, LDS wards offered their restrooms and Bill Spencer at 8th Avenue Market offered good deals on soda and beer. These early events grew in to the Street Fair we know today, operated under the umbrella of the Greater Avenues Community Council (GACC).

Planning for the Fair begins each year months before, in March. Numerous permits are obtained from the City and County; booth applications are taken, a featured artist is selected, people's art is solicited, children's parade and activity area are developed, recycle and trash bins, water and porta-potties and street signs are ordered; neighbors are contacted; bands are solicited to play music, all by teams of volunteers. It is truly an event that brings people together. Today the Street Fair remains a celebration of our homes, our art and our neighborhood.