The Hessler Street Fair was an annual arts and music festival held the first weekend after

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It i ...

on the historical wood-block-paved Hessler Road, in the

University Circle University Circle is a district in the neighborhood of University on the East Side of Cleveland, Ohio. It is home to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance Hall (home to the Cleveland Orchestra), the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Cleveland ...

neighborhood of

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, United States. Bureaucratic difficulty in securing permits and event insurance were among reasons for the long-running

free festival Free festivals are a combination of music, arts and cultural activities, for which often no admission is charged, but involvement is preferred. They are identifiable by being multi-day events connected by a camping community without centralised ...

's end in 2019.

History

The first festival took place in 1969 and was held each year until 1984; following a ten-year hiatus festivals resumed in 1995. The event is organized as a fundraising event for the Hessler Neighborhood Association (HNA), which was formed in 1969 to save the neighborhood from being bulldozed to build student dormitories and parking lots for

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

. The proceeds are used "to preserve and maintain the neighborhood." The festival, which according to its website attracts more than 10,000 visitors, is held outdoors, on Hessler Road (which is blocked off for the festival). It typically includes arts and crafts vendors, vegetarian food, and street performances, as well as main stage performances of

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

, and

capoeira Capoeira () is an Afro-Brazilian martial art and game that includes elements of dance, acrobatics, capoeira music, music, and spirituality. It likely originated from enslaved Mbundu people, of the Kingdom of Ndongo, in present-day Angola. The ...

. Hessler Road, a small one-way residential brick street, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and was declared a historic district by the Cleveland Landmark Commission in 1975. The nearby Hessler Court is the only remaining street in Cleveland with

Nicolson pavement Nicolson pavement, alternatively spelled "Nicholson" and denominated wooden block pavement and wood block pavement, is a road surface material consisting of wooden blocks. Samuel Nicolson invented it in the mid-19th century. Wooden block pavemen ...

, a.k.a. wood block or wooden pavement. In 2007 the Hessler Street Fair was not held, although a "Hessler Unplugged" reunion block party took place on Saturday, May 19, 2007. The Fair resumed on May 17–18, 2008.Hessler Street Fair
/ref> 2019 marked the 40th Anniversary of the Hessler Street Fair and marked the end of the tradition. 21 bands performed over the final weekend.

Past acts

John Bassette John Bassette (December 28, 1941 – November 9, 2006) was a folk singer/songwriter, poet and cable television personality in the Greater Cleveland, Ohio, United States, area. He was born in Hampton, Virginia, USA. Musical career Bassette fi ...

Alex Bevan Alex Bevan (born 1950) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, poet, radio personality, and music producer. Early life Bevan began his musical career playing the French horn with his teacher Ruffier at Chambers Elementary School. In 1965, ...

* John B. Burroughs * Ian Corrigan as part of Chameleon * I-Tal *

Jim Glover Jim R. Glover (born 1942) is an American peace activist and folk singer. He is from Cleveland, Ohio and lives in Brandon, Florida. Relationship with Phil Ochs Glover attended Ohio State University, where he met Phil Ochs in the fall of 1960 and i ...

* JiMiller Band * Joe Bell & The Swing Lizards * Carlos Jones & the P.L.U.S. Band * Robert Lockwood *

Michael Stanley Band Michael Stanley (born Michael Stanley Gee; March 25, 1948 – March 5, 2021) was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and radio and television personality. As a solo artist and with the Michael Stanley Band (MSB), and Michael Stanley and t ...

* Daniel Thompson * Tiny Alice * Oroboros * Hessler Court * Brownell Court * Froggy and the Shrimps *

Peter Laughner Peter Laughner (August 22, 1952 – June 22, 1977) was an American guitarist, songwriter and singer. A native of Bay Village, Ohio, Laughner was described by Richie Unterberger as "probably the single biggest catalyst in the birth of Clevel ...

and Ruby Port * Vibe and Direct

References

External links

Old Hessler Street Fair pageHessler Street Fair web site
Festivals in Cleveland Music festivals established in 1969 University Circle National Register of Historic Places in Cleveland, Ohio 1969 establishments in Ohio Music festivals in Ohio {{CuyahogaCountyOH-NRHP-stub