Street Fair Time
This past weekend was the Columbiana Street Fair. As usual, we attended every night. For those of you who have never been there, the Street Fair is a good lesson in the psychology of humans. (It kind of reminds me of the lab mice experiments that Canadian Loonie does for a living.) You block off one street for three blocks, throw in some food vendors, two or three crappy rides to occupy the kids, some cheesy games, and lastly ten thousand people, and watch the fun. I've been to a lot of fairs and festivals, but this one is my favorite.
Here's how it works.................
You start at the first end of Main Street, which is blocked off by police barricades that are simply a security blanket to make you feel safe from the cars that are still zooming around the traffic circle only 10 feet away. You start walking only to stop every 20 yards and talk to a wide variety of people. Examples being.......People you haven't seen since this time last year at the same event, other's you haven't seen in years and years, various high school and college acquaintances, and invariably the people you see all the time but for some reason you just have to stop and talk to them as if you have something new or exciting to say! (There are also the people you intentionally cross the street to avoid talking to. They are few and far between, but worth the effort!) You make random pit stops to get food and drink of every imaginable kind. You try to find that elusive good deal at the used book sale. You catch a song or two at the coffee shop by some random high school rock band. The middle of your trip is the tent. You enter this Taj Mahal of brightly lit plastic and then try to avoid the politicians who are attempting to slap a sticker on you, the Avon/Home Interior ladies who want you to sign up for a free snowman, and the contractor guys selling every form of anti-leaf gutter system, none of which ever work. The only fun spot in the tent is at the turn you get to see the Photo-Contest entries. You head back up the other side of the tent and exit where you entered. You then proceed to make your way back up the street pausing for more conversations and a whole lot more food. You end up at the Bingo tent which is right beside where you started. This whole process will take at least an hour, and if it's busy or the conversations are a-plenty, you can multiply that number by 2 or 3.
All I can say is that I LOVE IT! Ell and I look forward to the Street Fair maybe more than any other yearly event we attend. I know it sounds loopy, but it is so much fun!
Here's how it works.................
You start at the first end of Main Street, which is blocked off by police barricades that are simply a security blanket to make you feel safe from the cars that are still zooming around the traffic circle only 10 feet away. You start walking only to stop every 20 yards and talk to a wide variety of people. Examples being.......People you haven't seen since this time last year at the same event, other's you haven't seen in years and years, various high school and college acquaintances, and invariably the people you see all the time but for some reason you just have to stop and talk to them as if you have something new or exciting to say! (There are also the people you intentionally cross the street to avoid talking to. They are few and far between, but worth the effort!) You make random pit stops to get food and drink of every imaginable kind. You try to find that elusive good deal at the used book sale. You catch a song or two at the coffee shop by some random high school rock band. The middle of your trip is the tent. You enter this Taj Mahal of brightly lit plastic and then try to avoid the politicians who are attempting to slap a sticker on you, the Avon/Home Interior ladies who want you to sign up for a free snowman, and the contractor guys selling every form of anti-leaf gutter system, none of which ever work. The only fun spot in the tent is at the turn you get to see the Photo-Contest entries. You head back up the other side of the tent and exit where you entered. You then proceed to make your way back up the street pausing for more conversations and a whole lot more food. You end up at the Bingo tent which is right beside where you started. This whole process will take at least an hour, and if it's busy or the conversations are a-plenty, you can multiply that number by 2 or 3.
All I can say is that I LOVE IT! Ell and I look forward to the Street Fair maybe more than any other yearly event we attend. I know it sounds loopy, but it is so much fun!
posted by Sam at 11:07 AM
2 Comments:
Wow, you summed it up perfectly. We look forward to the street fair every year too, which is strange because we typically won't go to any other fairs. There is just something about the street fair I love.
In all my years of attending the Street Fair (which is every year of my life except for last year) I have never had anyone sum it up so perfectly. I found myself laughing out loud at your description of the tent because it is so true. Great visual even though I was there.
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