Those of you who are new to Seattle know all about our reputation for having a lot of rain and a plethora of coffee shops, but you may not know about that other item we have in mass quantities: street fairs.

Yes, Seattle (and the rest of Western Washington) has many street fairs. Too many, some would say; to be honest, while I’m typically a fan of street fairs, after a while it does seem as if they all blend together in the mind. Maybe that’s why instead of waiting for summer, the U-District Street Fair [site] has theirs early, while it’s still spring. Then again, this is their 38th annual fair and as I recall it’s always been around this time of year, so maybe they just like this time of year. If there’s an older, still-running street fair I’ve never heard of it. All their experience pays off, this is consistenly one of the best-organized, most entertaining fairs out there with live music, spoken word, dance, activities for kids and for dogs, all sorts of buskers and dozen upon dozens of vendors selling a wide variety of food and merchandise.

If you do go (and you should), you might want to look into taking the bus. [metro] There are a zillion routes that will take you right there, so there’s no excuse to add to the already over-congested parking situation unless you’ve got a dozen people crammed in a microbus. The street fair runs from 10 am to 7 pm on Saturday, May 19, and 10 am to 6 pm on Sunday, May 20. I highly recommend making it down in time for the dog contests–in this dog-crazed town categories like “Best Dressed Dog” bring out the serious competition.

Related posts:

1. Street Fair Palooza: University District StreetFair Kicks-Off Pre-Summer Community Fun
2. It’s Street Fair Season!
3. Scenes from the U-District
4. Fremont Fair this weekend
5. All Nations Cup begins this weekend