Tag: OB Street Fair

Originally posted June 26, 2009

by Mike James

As co-chair of the first Street Fair, I must set the record straight. This year’s 30th Annual Street Fair is actually the 28th.

The first street fair which took place July 4th, 1982 and was an expansion of the Fireworks Festival which began in 1980 (hence the 30th anniversary).

Sponsored by the Ocean Beach Merchants Association and KPRI Radio, the event was held on the 4900 and 5000 blocks of Newport Ave. With no vendors and a crowd in the hundreds, it seemed somewhat bare compared to the hundreds of vendors and the tens of thousands that show up now a days.

The folks who run the OB Street Fair have a new heartache. Someone broke into one of their volunteers’ cars and besides taking personal items, also escounced with a box of Street Fair T-shirts.

The T-shirts stolen were in a huge box of mostly men’s tanks in black and a number of small and medium size men’s T-shirts. Volunteers were taking boxes home to fold the T-shirts over the weekend and bam! . . . some bad guy a steals one of the boxes. The t-shirts were all printed by the James Gang and are sold to raise money for the Street Fair, Fireworks and lots of OB projects. All the shirts have the street fair logo (two sandals, stars and the words “Ocean Beach Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off Festival”) on them.

OCEAN BEACH, CA. Last night 10/22/09 at the Masonic Temple, the OB Rag received a special award from the Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association for our coverage of OB’s annual Street Fair held last June.

OBMA awarded the blog a 2009 Community Partner Award “For outstanding coverage of the 30th Annual Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off Festival”. Doug Porter and Frank Gormlie accepted the plaque on behalf of the website. Others from OB Rag attending were Lane Tobias and Gary Gilmore – who is also on the OBMA Board of Directors.
It is true that the OB Rag’s coverage of the Street Fair was awesome!

Here’s a break-down of the scope and breadth of what we presented : ….

by Gary Gilmore

The rockets’ red glare is gone. The echoes of the bombs bursting in air have faded. The volleys of marshmallows have been put to rest for another year. It’s time for an accounting. Where did all the money go?

At the risk of tainting the innocent pleasure that our fireworks bring to the happy hordes of revelers that flock to our little beach town on this holiday I’m going to tell you what they cost.

Twenty five grand. $25,000. …

Diligent researchers at the OB Rag blog have just unearthed an entire batch of foggotten photos from OB’s Street Fair held last weekend.

These photos, by Jeff Stone, cover a variety of subjects. We need assistance however in determining who is in the photos. So if you see someone or some band you know, give us a shout-out.

By OB Rag Staffer

AND THE WINNERS ARE …. we have them!

It’s that time of year again when things really heat up in OB. It’s the Annual Chili Cookoff. …
The Chili Cookoff took place at the lawn on Abbott Street just south of the Lifeguard Tower. There were about 25 booths set up around the perimeter of the lawn.

by Frank Gormlie

We drove into Ocean Beach for the Street Fair intending to take an outsider’s view. With the bumper-to-bumper traffic coming in on Sunset Cliffs and then on West Point Loma, with everybody on the sidewalks streaming south, it truly looked like OB was part of a theme park – OB Enchanted Land.

by Mary E Mann

Among the many things I can say about Ocean Beach, one is that this community sure knows how to get behind a party.

According to friends of mine, OB old-timers, this year’s Street Fair was tame. No longer are people allowed to drink openly in the streets, for one thing.

My beloved and I were headed into Artist Alley. It was slow going through the crowd back to the stage area. Richard grabbed my arm and said “check out the signs.”

He read out loud “Don’t Go to Hell” printed on one and then “Read Bible for Details” on another. “It gets better,” he added. “It seems that certain restrictions apply—check them out.”

We’ve received more photos from our own Wireless Mike and another good friend of the Rag, R. Kacmar. Look for…

9:30 am. We arrived at the Sea World Drive parking lot shortly after Gary Gilmore had opened the gate-with bolt cutters. Gary says this has become an annual tradition. The gate is never opened by the City as planned and Gary has learned to never leave home on this day without the OBMA bolt cutters.

Two shiny Old Town Trolleys were waiting there …

by Lane Tobias

Treated to a beautiful San Diego summer day, thousands of people flocked to OB to take part in the 30th incarnation of the Ocean Beach Street Fair and Chili Cook-Off Festival. …

As for the vendors, the very people who make this fair the bustling event that it is, it was obvious even before the crowds started showing up around 2:00pm who was going to have a good day.