Music, food set the mood at People's Fair - The Denver Post

Music, food set the mood at People's Fair - The Denver Post
Think dancing. Think music. Think deep-fried Twinkies.

Think the Capitol Hill People's Fair is open, signaling that the summer festival season has officially begun.

The People's Fair, with a full roster of street-vendor food and homegrown music, runs through Sunday evening at Civic Center in downtown Denver.

The fair began in 1971 after residents of Capitol Hill weren't happy with city planners' decision to turn some avenues into one-way streets.

The residents, the city and Denver police decided to mend relations by having a neighborhood get-together. The neighborhood confab turned into a full-blown festival that eventually grew so large it had to migrate from Morey Middle School to the big downtown park.

The People's Fair will feature food, and tons of it, from turkey legs, cinnamon roasted nuts, fried Twinkies and buffalo burgers to roasted corn and other traditional summer fare.

Kids can bounce in a bubble tower or test their mettle in the Denver Firefighters Museum obstacle course.

Local bands will perform on six stages scattered throughout the park, featuring jazz, rock, blues, country, Latin, Mexican, rhythm and blues, soul and folk music. A variety of dancers will leap, stomp, shimmy or shake their bellies and bon bons in Aztec, Bolivian, Irish and ballet dance forms.