Monroe Street Fair
Join us Saturday, April 3rd, 2010
History
The event on Monroe Street started over fifteen years ago as a block party. In 2002 and 2003, the Monroe Street Fair was known as the Free Fest. The free show features live music and vending.
2002: The event was held on Saturday, April 6th, 2002. The new event organizers obtained the event's first ever special event permit, enabling the block party to grow into a fair and festival featuring amplified music exempt from the city noise ordinance along with vending. We had great attendance for the first fair as the weather was beautiful. The fair featured musical guests The Brothers Groove, Face, RIB and Moon Maddness, and special guest Muruga.
2003: The event was held on Saturday, April 5th, 2003. We rented the Show Mobile; it was a great stage. The fair featured musical guests SOOT, Last Days, Buddha Fulla Rymez, Bowlscraper, Hype Engine, and RIB. The fair's poster art was created and printed by Jah Lion Studios.
2004: The event was held on Saturday, April 3rd, 2004. Creative Recreation, Inc., a non-profit corporation, was formed to handle all of the fair's business. 2004 was the first year the fair broke even. We had our best year so far. We had advance promotion of the event, distributing 200 posters and 5000 postcards. Attendance was strong throughout the day. The featured musical guests were John Sinclair with Glowb, special guests Muruga and the Ceremonial Global Village Band, Troubleman, Soot, and RIB. The fair had fourteen vendors showcasing a variety of crafts and wares. The fair's poster art was created by Mark Stopke of the Lucky Monkey Tattoo Parlour. Click here to view the 2004 photo slide show.
2005: The 4th annual Monroe Street Fair was held on Saturday, April 2nd, 2005. The event featued musical guests John Sinclair with Glowb, Moon Madness, the Salt Miners, and Troubleman. The fair had fifteen vendors. The fair's poster art was created by Mark Stopke of the Lucky Monkey Tattoo Parlour.
2006: The 5th annual Monroe Street Fair was held on Saturday, April 1st, 2006. Oak Hill Productions provided the stage and sound production this year, and Nix and EJF created our awesome poster art.
The weather treated us rather nicely this year and about 1,400 people attended. The Ragbirds opened the show with their fresh blend of world music, followed by the high energy grooves of Ground Score. Amy Heard took the stage at 3:30pm with her harmonic acoustic set and Glowb brought it all home with their dynamic fusion of diverse genre music. All sixteen vendors had a successful day and were pleased.
2007: The 6th annual Monroe Street Fair was held on Saturday, April 7th, 2007. Oak Hill Productions provided the stage and sound production this year, and Nix created our awesome poster art.
The 6th annual fair was a special one. We had a very special guest with David Arquette stopping by to promote his movie, The Tripper. David hung out most of the day, signing autographs, and mingling with the crowd. Thanks for stopping by David!
Besides David stopping by, the show rocked! We started off with Jam Samich that filled all our hungry lunch time belly's. Their awesome sounds, and filling jams was more than enough to handle those munchies. Treetown Underground took over after that, with their roots music, blu-grass, gypsi-jaz, & reggae. These guys are just a hoot to watch and are sure to get your dancing shoes grooving. Glowb took the stage after that with their dynamic fusion of diverse genre music. Glowb is a staple of the Monroe Street Fair and these guys never disappoint. The Mac Podz finished it all out with their Disco be-bop, strong soul, and R&B influence. This was the perfect way to finish out another great year in Ann Arbor.
All the vendors, once again, had a great day selling many cool items. All these vendors sell unique items that have become a staple of the Monroe Street Fair. Thank you!
Please contact us if you have any photos or video you would like to contribute to our digital archive.