Fremont Fair

The Fremont Fair is one of the premier street fairs in Seattle. It's a celebration of the summer solstice and has a goal of raising money for and awareness of the low-income people that live in the area. The Fair kicks off on a Saturday with a parade. Robb and I couldn't get to the Fair until Sunday, but the parade is supposed to be pretty darn spectacular. And, the fair is also preceded by body-painted, naked bicyclers. That's just something I've got to see next year. Fortunately, this year we did manage to pass the booth run by the nudists, who were nude. In the middle of the Seattle on a very crowded day, filled with fair-goers. Well a couple of them had these fake leafs covering their lower portion, front-ends (very Adam and Eve-esque). But then again, some of them didn't.

So on June 22nd, we decided to take the bus to Seattle. Parking in Fremont is limited even on a non-event day and we didn't want to search and pay for parking. Unfortunately, taking the bus requires lots of time, especially with buses that are very late and very crowded. So the ride there and back literally took four hours out of our day. Oh well, gotta make a sacrifice for the environment and our wallets.

In addition to the three different stages with a variety of musical acts, there were also dozens of street performers, spaced out every block or so. There was a 12 year old kid playing his violin, a couple of teenagers in a drum and guitar combo, and some ragtime bands (complete with drums, horns, bass, dancers, awesome singers, and a washboard!) There were tons of booths for all types of crafts, from candles, to hippie clothes, to hand-made journals, to items made entirely of silverware (earrings, hair clips, funny masks, wind chimes, etc.) There was a very odd car show at the Fremont Fair too. Cars that were shaped and decorated in the strangest way were displayed. And of course, great fair food was ample. We ended up trying two awesome things. We ate the biggest hunk of fresh-made french fries I've ever seen. We saw the people actually make two whole potatoes into strings by using a power drill, and then frying those fries right in front of us. We also had this weird Polish-type thing: boiled potatoes, covered with sausage, and then a dill pesto sauce. Yum.

It was a beautiful day and perfect street-fair weather. It was one of the largest and best street fairs I've seen since living in Texas and attending Austin fairs. Definitely something I'll be returning to, and next year I definitely need to check out the naked, painted bicyclists!