DEVO frontman Mark Mothersbaugh hams it up with Franchesca Edhlund, the music-savvy, 11-year-old daughter of Rex Edhlund, Metropolitan’s art director. The pair bumped into each other while strolling the event, which DEVO headlined. Mothersbaugh staged the photo.

Founded in 1984 by Rob Hagey, Street Scene is often credited with being one of the catalysts to Downtown’s renaissance. Thinking back, 1984 was not a pretty year for the Gaslamp Quarter, but that didn’t stop Hagey from putting his cavalcade of local and national acts before music-starved fans in the gritty streets of San Diego. Over the years, Downtown grew and so did Street Scene until all of a sudden the merchants no longer appreciated the crowd the festival attracted. So Street Scene moved, moved again, and kept searching for a new home until it finally moved back to the Downtown streets it works so well in.

This year’s lineup gained an eclectic edge with Hagey’s collaboration with the godfather of local alternative music, Casbah mogul Tim Mays. The finds Mays brings to the table help to make the event into a musical treasure hunt of new bands to discover. Mix this with well-known headliners and the recipe became brilliant!

Watching the wonderfully diverse selection of performers was seconded only by the people-watching of an equally mixed group of attendees of all ages. The 21-plus sections acted nicely as enclosures for the alcohol drinkers while still giving them a staggering view of the Jumbotron equipped stages. The crowds were friendly, the event was easily navigated, the performers were world class and it all took place under the perfect weather of Downtown.

One of this writer’s personal highlights was seeing the side of the main stage slowly fill up during the final evening’s closing performance by alt-rock legend DEVO. As the lights flickered, you could start to make out the faces in the crowd. Performers from the other bands, having switched roles from stars to simply being fans, watched avidly as the still-alternative legends performed. You could see Tim Mays there as well and it’s a good bet Rob Hagey was in the same crowd.

That’s what makes this festival legendary. Mays and Hagey are not just promoters. They are fans who just happen to be throwing a very large party and Downtown just happens to be their home.

You couldn’t have this experience anywhere but Downtown San Diego.

— Rex Edhlund