TUCSON, Ariz. — Historic Fourth Avenue announced it is hosting the iconic spring street fair online this year, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The street fair creates a lot of revenue for a lot of folks, and it’s really going to hurt,” said Fred Ronstadt, Historic Fourth Avenue’s executive director.
For the first time, around 250 artists and merchants from across the country have their products available online; including our local businesses typically involved with the fair.
“A lot of people are going to have access to it over the internet, and that's a great thing. Reality of it, though, is that we have our merchants on the avenue -- our brick and mortar folks that are here all year long -- this is a big revenue source for them. It gets them through the summer,” said Ronstadt.
Historic Fourth Avenue is still encouraging the community to support the artists through this virtual street fair experience. Ronstadt says a local group called Co-Manage created the site.
"Our artist that travel all around this country doing shows every weekend, that's their livelihood. That's how they pay their mortgage, that's how they live their lives. And we felt that there was an opportunity. They're not going to be here in Tucson, but they can still be here over the internet,” said Ronstadt.
Year after year, the street fair brings in thousands of dollars to Tucson and to the vendors. But just because you can't go to the fair, Ronstadt said, that doesn't mean you still can't support.
"We're hoping that all those folks benefit from this virtual fair, that people really step up and support not only our local businesses, but theses artists that really need your help during this time,” said Ronstadt.
The virtual street fair is live and open to the public now.
