By Nicole Rupersburg

The last weekend of summer brought us the first DIY Street Fair in Ferndale, held in conjunction with the Funky Ferndale Art Show. This Do-It-Yourself-mentality street fair was designed to highlight some of the region’s top talents in art, music, food and brew. Participants from all over the metro Detroit area came out to the fair city of Ferndale and brought their various wares—Michigan-made microbrews, made-on-the-spot art, and indie rock from Detroit’s garage darlings.

I decided to head out to the DIY Street Fair Sunday afternoon, when, conveniently for me, four of my favorite Detroit bands were playing back-to-back. Granted, that would be four out of about 30, but…well, it was still exciting. And it was even more exciting that, as opposed to other (larger) festivals, there was only one music stage—so I didn’t have to play that frantic game of running back and forth between four different stages, never catching more than 15 minutes’ worth of any one band’s set so as to maximize my (free) festival-going experience.

DIY kept it a little simpler for me. One stage, a mere 50 yards from the Go Comedy! Theatre-sponsored beer garden (thank you for that, whoever made that decision), and an onslaught of great bands, thanks to the well-connected festival organizers including the manager of the Hard Lessons and co-partner in the Emory and the WAB, Chris Johnston; co-founder of Handmade Detroit and organizer of the annual Zombie Dance Party, Carey Gustafson; Detroit Derby Girl Tina Iulianelli; Aaron Timlin of the CAID; Marketing and Promotions Manager of the Majestic Theatre Complex, Phil Childers; Heather Carmona, Executive Director of the Woodward Avenue Action Association; and more local business owners and artists.

Between sets from the Pop Project, the Hard Lessons, the Muggs, and Deastro, I checked out the arts vendors and found that many had taken the spirit of “DIY” quite literally. There were the music poster designers (the Silent Giants) who screenprinting new pieces in their tent; the T-shirt designers who offered to silkscreen T’s (or jeans, or knapsacks) for patrons on-the-spot; there was a tent in which a purse designer was making purses out of orange construction-zone plastic; a henna tattoo tent; in addition to artists from Handmade Detroit, the brother/sister team of City Bird, the Detroit Derby Girls, Robert Stanzler’s new T-shirt company Detroit Manufacturing Group, a record store, a record label, and a variety of jewelry, clothing, and other items one would expect to see at an art festival.

But aside from the stellar music lineup, the real standout at the DIY Street Fair which sets it apart from the variety of other festivals we see in the metro Detroit area every summer was the beer garden. 14 different Michigan-based producers of classic brews, microbrews, specialty and seasonal brews, and mead from the new B. Nektar Meadery in Ferndale (yes, mead, like what knights used to drink). The majority of other festivals fail to highlight these hand-crafted, indigenous products which are one of the major contributions of Michigan’s rich agricultural traditions. “CityFest” and “Arts, Beats, and Eats” nail all aspects of local food, music, and art…but the beverages are sadly lacking, leaving us with choices between Budweiser, Miller, and Heineken. This is a sad oversight by other festival organizers, and I was thrilled to see how the folks behind DIY paid attention to these very valuable products in Michigan’s increasing homegrown pride.

But back to the bands. They absolutely killed it. This was the Hard Lessons’ final metro Detroit-area show with drummer “The Anvil,” so they were especially energetic. But all the bands I was able to catch put on a high-energy, brew-fueled, fun rock show, and in this somewhat more intimate environment the crowd fed off the energy the bands were pouring out. We weren’t so much at a big corporate-sponsored festival as we were in a small venue to support bands we all know and love.

There are a lot of festivals in this area every summer, and they all have their own positive points. But in my opinion, this festival—the last of its kind for the year held on the last day of summer—beat all. And as a first-time affair, that is beyond impressive. Whatever minor kinks they might have to work out for next year (less congested space by the food vendors, more food vendors), they are nothing in comparison to the monumental accomplishment that was the first-EVER DIY Street Fair. Congratulations on a job well done, and I’m already looking forward to the next one.