SheSue Experience

Hawthorne Street Fair

Every city in America has street fairs, said to be a celebration of the neighborhood’s character. I visited the Hawthorne District Street Fair in Portland, Oregon.  The Hawthorne district is considered bohemian in style; the streets are lined with coffee shops, antique stores, cafes, pubs and trendy clothing shops.

A street fair is a great way to get to know your neighbors and introduce others to your business.  Local businesses offer sale items on tables in front of their stores allowing locals and unknowns to get to know their products.  On the streets and in the alleys, you will find tents covering vendors selling their hand made products.  The Hawthorne Street Fair provided all this and more

Kids at Heart Puppet Show

Music and entertainment was found on three stages with blues, rock, steel drums, country and old-time string band music as well as a fashion show.  The Kids at Heart Toy store put on puppet shows, dancing, juggling and martial arts demonstrations.  There was also a whole parking lot filled with kids activities like face painting, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, coloring and more.

The Bagdad Theater, a renovated theater built in 1927, offered movies, wine tastings and coffee tastings.  Anisha Holistic Health Center offered classes in alternative health solutions.  Voodoo Tattoo put on tattoo demos while spinning soul, hip hop, funk and blues music.  The local Fred Meyer Store has clowns, samples, and music by the Portland Metro Youth Pipe Band.

Portland Metro Youth Band

I’ve tried to find out the history behind street fairs, but can’t seem to come up with anything.  An article in the Fulton Sun talks about the history of the Fulton Street Fair and it seems to be similar to other stories I have found about other long running street fairs.  The Fulton Street Fair began in 1899 and resembled a small county fair.  Booths sold food and displayed handwork and sewing.  It gave the locals a chance to show off their accomplishments and honored veterans returning home.  Parades were big in the early 1900’s complete with floats, as well as carnival rides and competitions for farm animals.

There were no carnival rides or farm animals at Hawthorne Street Fair, but there were lots of fun things to do, great bargains to be found and vendor booths showed the imagination and hard work of local artisans.