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Posted on Fri, Jul 20, 2012 : 4:50 a.m.

Scenes from the 2012 Ann Arbor Art Fair: State Street Area Art Fair

By Melanie Maxwell

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Find a roundup of all our Art Fair coverage here.

The annual Ann Arbor Art Fair continued Thursday, with rain dissipating early in the day and temperatures remaining pleasant.

Photographers Melanie Maxwell and Mike Glinski captured these images from the State Street Area Art Fair, one of four individual fairs that together make up the overall event. The State Street Area Art Fair is located along State, Maynard, William and Thompson streets, along with parts of Liberty Street and North University Avenue.

Comments

carlye

Sat, Jul 21, 2012 : 7:23 p.m.

There are 4 shows because each one was created by a group of merchants as an association. It's not a show put on by the city of Ann Arbor but the State street merchants the South U merchants, the Guild has it's own show and is working with Main St merchants...the Original Art show got pushed..onto the university. It's still the best one with the highest quality.

julieswhimsies

Thu, Jul 19, 2012 : 9:31 p.m.

I hope that little red-haired and fair baby is covered with sunscreen. Even a hat would help!

xmo

Thu, Jul 19, 2012 : 7:41 p.m.

Can somebody explain to me why there are four different Art Fairs? Why not have just one and free up some more downtown area?

aabikes

Thu, Jul 19, 2012 : 7:41 p.m.

a Frontier Ruckus street performance!? Awesome!

microtini

Fri, Jul 20, 2012 : 2:10 a.m.

Actually, aa, according to the caption the name of the band is Frontier Ruckus David Winston Jones. I hope they're as good as their name is long.

MyOpinion

Thu, Jul 19, 2012 : 7:32 p.m.

The streets don't look thronged in these photos. Nor, did they feel that way when I walked through part of the fair on an errand. The William/Fourth structure had 430 spots available yesterday at 5:00pm, but cars were lined up to enter. Any idea on attendance metrics: parking structure revenue, shuttle buses from Briarwood (or does that not exist anymore), etc.

MyOpinion

Fri, Jul 20, 2012 : 3:06 a.m.

Mostly, I was wondering if AA.com will contact DDA or whoever and get a comparison of last year's revenue versus this year's. Enough with the random stories. Another comparison would be sales tax revenue for the month of July vs June for selected stores close to the Art Fair. Again, my errand took me to a campus store where I was the only patrron; not the only patron at the cash register but the only patron in the store. i think that is not unusual as folks avoid the campus/downtown areas for Art Fair. On the other hand, lots of stores see an uptick. There should be a nuanced story on this. I think Art Fair is a + for Ann Arbor, but it isn't the mega-business incubator DDA thinks it is.

Bob Needham

Thu, Jul 19, 2012 : 10:10 p.m.

The parking revenue numbers usually come a couple weeks later. Until then, it's pretty much all anecdotal.

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