ASUO Street Faire

What happened to the street fair? It used to be all local vendors making ethnic foods, generally the same stands you find at the Saturday Market. This year I returned for the first time in three years, and found it transformed into something decidedly carnivalesque. Elephant ears and funnel cakes? Huh?
Happy to see Red Wagon Creamery there though. Love them! And I can never resist a caramel apple from Larson’s.

Every Fall and Spring Terms, the Associated Students of the University of Oregon sponsor a 3 day street faire. The East 13^th thoroughfare across campus is lined with an assortment of local non-​profit info booths, vendors peddling their wares including candles, jewelry, clothing, accessories, posters, tapestries, and street foods.
Prices are high, quality is, on average, less than stellar, with a couple of exceptions and gems hidden amongst the goods that seem to have been cloned in 2003 and keep spitting out the same products to offer year after year.
The food options are diverse but not terribly exciting or worth the price. Very few vendors offer local or better-​than-​Sysco ingredients. With the exception of Red Wagon Creamery, and J Tea, I’d rather bring a lunch than waste my cash on unmemorable pad thai, fried rice, vegan and regular philly cheesesteaks, BBQ, funnel cakes, kettle corn, spring rolls, fried plantains, smoothies, snow cones, and the like.