Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Today, the festival is on Third Avenue, from 14th Street to St. Mark's Place...



There is nothing else left to say.

[Updated] Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Today's street fair festival is on Third Avenue from East 14th Street on down to East Sixth Street (we think!)...

...vendors were just setting up when we walked through around an entirely too early hour.

With the Dance Parade and the Ukrainian Festival, traffic should be nice and snarly...

Updated: Noon

An aerial view via @AndrewPettit ...

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair! (plus, Best Pickle on A-Stick)

In case you missed yesterday's street fair on Second Avenue ... there's another one today on Broadway, from Union Square to, oh, maybe Astor Place. Didn't actually look ...

...and cliffhanger ending...

Meanwhile, after yesterday's Second Avenue street fair...

We don't know what it is either.

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair! (plus, Bouncy Castle!)

Woo! Street fair season is heating up ...

And look — two butterflies on the M15 sign. (And what does that mean when two butterflies land on an M15 street fair notice? You won't catch a cold all summer?)

Just before 9, workers were setting up starting at East 14th Street, heading down south to Cape May County maybe Fifth Street. Or Sixth? I didn't walk down to see.

There are balloon arrangements...

...and the usual variety of food stands...

... and entertainment...

Bouncy castle! Bouncy castle!

Reminders today: The 9th Street Block Party

From the EV Grieve inbox...we first posted this on Thursday...

Please join our 9th Street A-1 Block Association Block Party!

9th Street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A
Saturday, September 17th, 11 am – 5 pm (no rain date)
Live Music (from noon - 4 pm) featuring:

• Cracked Latin – hybrid psychedelic latin salsa band
• Serena Jean Southam – country rock singer-songwriter
• Star '69 – Grateful Dead Tribute Band
• Primativa in Hi-Fi – (DJs) – Electrolounge, Bossa Nova, Nova Bossa and similarly sultry soundtracks
• Bird Love – Indie / Post Punk / Rock
with more bands to come!

Resident artists, crafts people, and photographers will be showing and selling their work, and residents will be selling a la "stoop sale" — antiques, bric-a-brac, clothing, accessories, music, jewelry, etc.

Raffles for gifts, discounts, or coupons from block businesses
Block businesses include:

• Autumn Skateboards, Bridal Veil Falls, Cloak & Dagger boutique, Dorian Grey Gallery, Dusty Buttons vintage boutique, Enchantments, Flower Power (herbs), M Sonii (boutique), Ollie's Place (cat adoption), Pink Olive (gifts), Polytima (jewelry), Pork Pie Hatterie, Puppy Love Kitty Kat (pet supplies), Tae with Jane (boutique), The Upper Rust (antiques)
• Restaurants: Dirt Candy, Good Beer, I Coppi, Itzocan, Kajitsu, Whitman's, Zucker Bakery
• Hair Salons/Barbers: Lovemore & Do, Maria Mok Salon, Neighborhood Barber, Ueno Salon

This Saturday: The 9th Street Block Party

From the EV Grieve inbox...

Please join our 9th Street A-1 Block Association Block Party!

9th Street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A
Saturday, September 17th, 11 am – 5 pm (no rain date)
Live Music (from noon - 4 pm) featuring:

• Cracked Latin – hybrid psychedelic latin salsa band
• Serena Jean Southam – country rock singer-songwriter
• Star '69 – Grateful Dead Tribute Band
• Primativa in Hi-Fi – (DJs) – Electrolounge, Bossa Nova, Nova Bossa and similarly sultry soundtracks
• Bird Love – Indie / Post Punk / Rock
with more bands to come!

Resident artists, crafts people, and photographers will be showing and selling their work, and residents will be selling a la "stoop sale" — antiques, bric-a-brac, clothing, accessories, music, jewelry, etc.

Raffles for gifts, discounts, or coupons from block businesses
Block businesses include:

• Autumn Skateboards, Bridal Veil Falls, Cloak & Dagger boutique, Dorian Grey Gallery, Dusty Buttons vintage boutique, Enchantments, Flower Power (herbs), M Sonii (boutique), Ollie's Place (cat adoption), Pink Olive (gifts), Polytima (jewelry), Pork Pie Hatterie, Puppy Love Kitty Kat (pet supplies), Tae with Jane (boutique), The Upper Rust (antiques)
• Restaurants: Dirt Candy, Good Beer, I Coppi, Itzocan, Kajitsu, Whitman's, Zucker Bakery
• Hair Salons/Barbers: Lovemore & Do, Maria Mok Salon, Neighborhood Barber, Ueno Salon

Summer is still sizzlin' — street fair! Street fair!

Just in case you missed these same vendors every weekend this summer.... you're in luck! Fourth Avenue today, from 14th Street to Astor Place...

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

From Astor Place to East 14th Street. Or maybe it's the other way around...

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Setting up this morning... traffic is cut off at Sixth Street... how far north does this goes, I have no idea...

East 10th Street yesterday

During the street fair portion of the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts, which continues today...

[Blue Glass]

[Bobby Williams]

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Oh yeah!

Just getting set up this morning at 9... this street fair runs from 14th Street ("East Union Square")

...down to Sixth Street, where traffic is already fucked backed up.

At the Second Avenue Street Fair

And shouldn't it really be the Second Avenue Avenue Fair?

Previously today.

Photo by Bobby Williams.

Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!

Ah! Here's something that you may want to avoid at all costs do today. The (A?) Second Avenue Street Fair is happening today, from 14th Street down to, dunno, St. Mark's or so. The Street Fairers were just setting as I walked down the middle of along Second Avenue earlier today.

It's still summer because... Street Fair!

On Fourth Avenue, from 14th Street to 10th Street. Perhaps your last chance to stock up on Magic Silk Skirts and tube socks until probably next weekend.

Group doesn't want street fairs to suck as badly as they do

From the inbox!

Concluding that the vast majority of New York City street fairs are bland and repetitive, and in need of wholesale changes, the Center for an Urban Future today published a report that features ideas for improving these staples of summer from two dozen innovative New Yorkers, including the founders of successful markets like the New York City Greenmarket, Union Square Holiday Market, Brooklyn Flea and Chelsea Market.

The study, titled “New Visions for New York Street Fairs,” starts from the premise that the city’s current system of street fairs desperately need a makeover. It argues that large numbers of New Yorkers are dissatisfied with street fairs for a variety of reasons: there are so many of them that they quickly blend together (there were 321 of them in 2009); a majority of the vendors sell the same bland merchandise, such as tube socks, sunglasses and gyros; a handful of neighborhoods are inundated by the fairs, with a new one popping up almost every week; and with nearly a dozen street fairs on some weekends, the multiple street closures make driving or taking a cab through the city a nightmare. The study seeks to jumpstart a discussion about how to make these public events less generic, more interesting and better reflective of what’s unique about New York.

“New York’s street fairs have been a disappointment for too long,” says Jonathan Bowles, director of the Center for an Urban Future, a Manhattan-based think tank. “It’s time to throw out the cookie-cutter approach and create street fairs that better reflect this incredibly unique and diverse city. There’s no reason to see the same vendors selling tube socks and gyros at almost every fair when New York has so many one-of-a-kind entrepreneurs and artists.”

A PDF of the full report is available here (PDF)

Street Fair!

On Third Avenue from 14th Street to Sixth Street...




..with plenty of the usual food options... something for the post World Cup crowd pouring out of Nevada Smith's...