A spring breeze carried the melody of a blues song through East 13th Avenue past students out enjoying the sunshine and vendors with wares from around the world.
“Shake it!” Eagle Park Slim, who has been a blues maestro for 50 years, sang to a passing student.
He hasn’t performed at the ASUO Annual Street Faire since the 1980s, but he said he’s happy to be back at a new and very different street fair.
This year the 2006 ASUO Spring Street Faire organizers have pushed to increase the variety of vendors, looking locally, nationally and internationally, David Watson, marketing director of the event, said.
“We’ve started to try to pull in vendors from farther and farther away,” ASUO marketing intern Richard Pryor said. “It’s not really local.”
Cascadia Longboards, a new addition to this year’s fair, is a new local business based out of a basement, specializing in the production of handmade longboards.
“We’re kind of introducing ourselves to Eugene,” owner Sterling Daily said. “We’ve been crafting boards for about a year and a half.”
Daily and Eric Meyers said the company intends to create a longboarding event where boarders can come together.
“We want to create a community ride night, a weekly thing where we all get together,” Daily said. “I want to focus a weekly session where we take them out skating, we’ll provide equipment such as helmets.”
The fair concentrates most of the student body into one location, sophomore Andy Doherty said, increasing the odds that a student can see a friend that he or she hasn’t seen all term.
“It’s got a community feel,” Doherty said. “I’ve seen 10 people that I haven’t seen in quite some time, just walking down the street.”
Sophomore Miles Davenport said it’s not just the community of students but of the vendors.
“Vendors come from all over,” Davenport said. “They aren’t being exploited by corporations. It’s kind of like sticking it to the man.”
But some vendors were less rosy about the communal atmosphere.
Vendor Paul Gregory said he was irritated with the parking situation, a perennial problem for vendors.
“There’s always been a parking problem,” Gregory said. “The cops are pretty quick to give tickets. I get at least one ticket every time – just got one today.”
Although parking has been a problem for vendors, Mira Finnan of Sweet Skins, whose clothes are handmade, said the vendors selling imports create unfair competition.
“My stuff is handmade, so the imports bother me,” Finnan said. “I wouldn’t let the imports overload it. You see a lot of repeat stuff with some of the importers.”
Junior Drew Sakshaug, said he wished some vendors who were absent this spring would come back.
“I’m hungry,” said Sakshaug, “and I’m missing the Bar-B-Q King.”
Pryor said planning the fair had been difficult, but it turned out well.
“It’s been a little of a bit of a struggle all year,” Pryor said. “We’ve had to pull up our oot straps, but we’ve done a good job organizing the event and making it happen.”