It was hot on Saturday. Melting gum on the sidewalk, shirtless-guy-who-probably-shouldn’t-be-going-shirtless kind of hot.

It was also the 10th annual Mississippi Street Fair. And if you happened to shuffle your way down Mississippi Avenue between Fremont and Skidmore streets, weaving through the train of baby strollers (or possibly pushing one yourself) and dodging the adorable-yet-slobbery pooches, well, Portland Monthly was right there with you.

Big Dawn Blackwood got things started around 10 AM and Mississippi Studios wrapped things up by hosting shows late into the night, culminating in a midnight concert from local heroes Dolorean. Between these two happenings, 36 regional bands, the likes of Dirty Mittens, agesandages and The Angry Orts (to name a few), strutted their stuff on six different stages.

Over 250 vendors brought unique merchandise for fairgoers to “ooo and ahh” over; everything from locally crafted jewelry to independently produced soap to deep fried mac n’ cheese balls to sketchy looking caramel apples were represented.

The gentrified North Portland neighborhood experienced an influx of thousands of Portlanders. If last weekend’s Waterfront Blues Festival was a sea of people, the Mississippi Street Fair was undoubtedly a slow-moving shoulder-to-shoulder river of humanity.

Photographer McKenna Johnson captured some of the street fair’s highlights, including the pescado tacos from Por Que No, the irreverent Pollock-esque painting of an automobile by children, and a toddler with a Batman mask painted on his face. It (finally) feels like summer out there—so, in the words of DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince’s “Summertime”, “sit back and unwind,” and enjoy the slideshow!

Were you there? Let us know what you liked.

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