A street fair celebrates the character of a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area ...

. As its name suggests, it is typically held on the main street of a neighborhood. The principal component of street fairs are booths used to sell goods (particularly food) or convey information. Some include carnival rides and parades. Many have live music and dance demonstrations. Fairs typically range no more than a few blocks long, although some fairs, such as the 9th Avenue International Food Festival in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and the

Solano Stroll The Solano Avenue Stroll, also known as the Solano Stroll, is an annual street fair held on the second Sunday of September on the Solano Avenue shopping district of Albany and Berkeley, California. Stretching close to 2 miles long and bringing be ...

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

, extend more than a mile. A fair only one block long is commonly called a block party.

Variety

Street fairs vary greatly in character, even within one city. Annual street fairs in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, Washington, for example, include the

University District University District can refer to a location in the United States: *University District, Detroit, Michigan * University District, Columbus, Ohio *University District, San Bernardino, California *University District, Seattle The University District ...

Street Fair that feature the work of craftspeople and require that the person who make the goods that are for sale must be present in their own booths. The Fremont Fair features crafts from around the world, as well as the

Summer Solstice Parade and Pageant The Fremont Solstice Parade is an annual event that occurs each June in Seattle, Washington. The Parade was founded by Barbara Luecke and Peter Toms in 1989. Luecke and Toms were inspired by the Santa Barbara Summer Solstice Parade and Ce ...

, famed for its painted naked cyclists. In the same city, the Capitol Hill Block Party fences off several blocks, charges admission, and features some of the city's best known rock bands, while the Chinatown-International District Summer Fair has a distinctly

Asian-American Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

and

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Ocea ...

flavor, with

taiko are a broad range of Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various Japanese drums called and to the form of ensemble drumming ...

drummers, martial arts demonstrations and

Hawaiian dance Hula () is a Hawaiian dance form accompanied by chant (oli) or song ( mele). It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Native Hawaiians who originally settled there. The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of the oli or mele in a visu ...

. In

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

, street fairs are known as

braderie A braderie or jaarmarkt (respectively meaning ''roasting'' and ''annual market'' in Dutch) is a type of grand yearly street fair and street market found in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Northern France, mostly held in the summer mo ...

s, which translates to roasting, referencing the frequent roasting of meat at the events.

List of street fairs

Atlantic Antic The Atlantic Antic is a street festival held yearly on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, New York between 4th Avenue and Hicks Street. It is run and produced by the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation (AALDC). The festival features food and ...

Braderie de Lille The Lille Braderie (''French: Braderie de Lille'') is a braderie, or annual street market/flea market, that takes place on the weekend of the first Sunday of September in Lille, France, in the northern Hauts-de-France region. Its dates back to t ...

Boishakhi Mela The Boishakhi Mela ( bn, বৈশাখী মেলা, Boishakhi Mela, Fair of Boishakh) is a Bengali celebration ( mela) which takes place outside of Bangladesh. It is celebrated by the Bangladeshi diaspora in the United Kingdom, United S ...

Castro Street Fair The 'Castro Street Fair'' is a San Francisco LGBT street festival and fair usually held on the first Sunday in October in the Castro neighborhood, the main gay neighborhood and social center in the city. The fair features multiples stages with l ...

* Chorley cake Street Fair *

Dekalb County Free Fall Fair DeKalb or De Kalb may refer to: People * Baron Johann de Kalb (1721–1780), major general in the American Revolutionary War Places Municipalities in the United States * DeKalb, Illinois, the largest city in the United States named DeKalb **DeKal ...

Ephrata Fair The Ephrata Fair is held each year in Ephrata, Lancaster County, and is the largest street fair in Pennsylvania. History In the late 1910s, such businessmen in Ephrata as Harry Singer, Dutch Butcher, Charles Yeager, and I.G. Sprecher decided ...

Feast of San Gennaro The Feast of San Gennaro (in Italian: ''Festa di San Gennaro''), also known as San Gennaro Festival, is a Neapolitan and Italian-American patronal festival dedicated to Saint Januarius, patron saint of Naples and Little Italy, New York. His ...

* Festa do Albariño *

Folsom Europe Folsom Europe, also known as Folsom Straßenfest (English: Folsom Street Fest), is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair held in September in Berlin, Germany since 2003. History Folsom Europe was established in 2003, in order to brin ...

Folsom Street Fair Folsom Street Fair (FSF) is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair, held in September, that caps San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week". The Folsom Street Fair, sometimes simply referred to as "Folsom", takes place on Folsom Street b ...

Gentse Feesten The Gentse Feesten (; In Ghent dialect Gense Fieste "The Ghent Festival") is a music and theatre festival in the city of Ghent, Belgium. Besides stage events there are street acts such as mimes and buskers. The festival starts on the Friday before ...

Giglio Society of East Harlem Giglio Society of East Harlem is a non profit Italian-American society located in East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, that sponsors an annual feast honoring their patron saint, Saint Anthony. History 20th century Southern Italian immigran ...

* How Weird Street Faire *

Kentucky Avenue Renaissance Festival Kentucky Avenue Renaissance Festival, also known as the Historical Kentucky Avenue Renaissance Festival, is a street fair held each summer in the former black entertainment district of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Founded in 1992, it appeared annuall ...

Lesbian and Gay City Festival The Lesbian and Gay City Festival (''Lesbisch-Schwules Stadtfest'') in Berlin is Europe's largest street festival for lesbians and gays. It has been held in the traditional gay area around Nollendorfplatz in Schöneberg since 1993. In Berlin i ...

Lilac Festival (Calgary) Lilac festival is an annual street festival held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The festival has grown to entertain over 80,000 people each spring. The lilac (''Syringa'') flowers are often blooming throughout the area at this time. The festival ...

Northalsted Market Days Northalsted Market Days is an annual two-day festival in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Established in 1982, it's the Midwest's largest street festival with annual attendance exceeding 300,000 people over the two-day event. It takes place in the ...

Solano Avenue Stroll The Solano Avenue Stroll, also known as the Solano Stroll, is an annual street fair held on the second Sunday of September on the Solano Avenue shopping district of Albany and Berkeley, California. Stretching close to 2 miles long and bringing be ...

St Crispin Street Fair The St Crispin Street Fair is a fair held periodically in the Market Square of Northampton, England. It is organised by Northampton Borough Council. The event is a travelling funfair with over 100 amusement rides, usually operating on several d ...

St Giles' Fair St Giles' Fair (also St Giles Fair) is an annual fair held in St Giles', a wide thoroughfare in central north Oxford, England. The origins of the fair can be traced back to medieval times where it became one of England's dynamic trading cente ...

Sunset Junction Street Fair The Sunset Junction Street Fair was an event held annually in the Sunset Junction neighborhood of the Silver Lake community in Los Angeles, California. Occurring annually in late August, the two-day neighborhood festival was first held in 1980, as ...

Taste of Arlington Ballston is a neighborhood in Arlington County, Virginia. Ballston is located at the western end of the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. It is a major transportation hub and boasts one of the nation's highest concentrations of scientific research agenc ...

* Up Your Alley Fair * Ohio Festival and Events Association lists Ohio fairs

Gallery

Image:Ballard Fest 2006 5.jpg, A street fair in the historically seafaring neighborhood of

Ballard, Seattle, Washington Ballard is a neighborhood in the northwestern area of Seattle, Washington, United States. Formerly an independent city, the City of Seattle's official boundaries define it as bounded to the north by Crown Hill (N.W. 85th Street), to the east by ...

Image:Feira.jpg, Produce at a street fair at

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

File:Quetschenfest.JPG, A view of the Quetschenfest street fair in the community of

Geichlingen Geichlingen is a municipality in the district of Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state o ...

, Germany File:Mondorf Luxembourg Braderie 20090830.jpg, A

Mondorf-les-Bains Mondorf-les-Bains ( ; ) is a commune and town in south-eastern Luxembourg. It is part of the canton of Remich. Mondorf-les-Bains is a spa town (hence its name), and has the only casino in Luxembourg. , the commune of Mondorf-les-Bains (other tow ...

, Luxembourg, 2009

References

{{reflist Fairs Street culture

Variety

List of street fairs

Gallery

See also

References