Art Beat

I've been to many a street fair! For the past 15-years I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. Street Fairs are a weekly event during the summer in San Francisco. They take place in different neighborhoods throughout the city. Each neighborhood has it's own theme. Some of my favorites were the Fillmore Street Fair (jazz), the Haight Street Fair (you could always buy a cool new pot pipe), the Castro Street Fair (great people watching), and the Folsom Street Fair ( 250,000 people celebrating sexual fetish - something you only need to see once). Street Fairs are a great way to connect with your community. And they don't cost much to attend.

On My 30th, I attended my first ever Street Fair in Eastern Oregon. It was held in my home town of Vale and was sponsored by the Drexel Foundation, a non-profit working to restore some of the old historic buildings in town, some of which will be used to promote the arts among young people who live here. The Drexel Foundation wants to restore the old Opera House and the Rex Theater, which has been closed for decades. I remember seeing Mary Poppins in the Rex when I was a child some 40-plus years ago. This was the second year this particular Street Fair has been held in Vale and was appropriately titled 'Art Beat'. It was held on Main Street, which is the oldest street in this Oregon Trail Town. The Old Stone House was built in 1872 and was originally called the Stage Coach Inn. It now houses the Vale Museum, which has a wonderful collection of Oregon Trail memorabilia.

The Street Fair had all the elements of the most successful ones I have ever attended: Live music (Headliner was Santana), booths selling crafts and jewelry, and of course activities where people, for a fee, could participate in some way to raise money for a worthy cause and at the same time have fun. 'Art Beat' booths included a dunk tank (hit the target with precision and drown some poor kid), a put put golf course (I was really entertained by the miss-spelling of 'put put' - see pictures), and the incredibly exciting bean bag toss and deep sea fishing booths (which each cost 1-ticket). And of course every Street Fair has something a little carnivalish and Art Beat was no different with it's Basket Ball Toss.

I had a great time! And as you can see, the success of a Street Fair is always measured by the smiles of happiness you see on your friends and neighbors faces.

I should mention that our live music headliner, Santana, was not the Santana of the 'Supernatural' album fame, but Santana Braniff, my niece, who is leaving around July 2nd to travel to Europe to sing in a choir of young people in four different countries before returning on the 18th. My little brother Tommy Braniff accompanied her on his guitar!

From my point of view, Art Beat was a smashing success!