A typical Colorado street fair goes something like this: questionable kettle corn, a band of local dads covering Tom Petty, maybe a bouncy castle slowly deflating in the sun.

But Louisville’s Street Faire is not your average summertime stroll. (It even has an extra “e” at the end of “fair” to let you know it’s different.) For 25 years, the city in southeastern Boulder County has been throwing Friday night summer parties that trade kitsch for killer lineups and turn Front Street into the kind of place where nationally touring acts light up a small-town stage.

Returning on June 13, this year’s season features both familiar faces and big-stage ringers, including local favorites Hazel Miller and Chris Daniels & The Kings (July 18), soulful roots-rocker Anders Osborne (June 20) and New Orleans funk powerhouse Dumpstaphunk (Aug. 8). Also on deck for this summer: Bay-area bluegrass from Hot Buttered Rum (June 13), a big Boulder-born band, classic rock from Firefall (July 25), Irish-American rock band The Young Dubliners (July 11), nostalgic ’70s country-rock from Nashville with The Woods (July 11) and Ten Years Gone, a Led Zeppelin tribute band (Aug. 1).

The Street Faire didn’t always have the draw that it does now. It started in 2001 as a grassroots effort to bring life back to a quiet downtown. Local business owners and members of the Downtown Business Association organized a free summer concert on a flatbed truck parked outside the old library on Spruce Street.

“The real purpose was to bring people to town,” said Rick Kron, a longtime DBA board member. “To draw people to the restaurants, the shops and help give Louisville a bit more energy and visibility. It’s really designed as a kind of tourist attraction, and it’s kept that vibe ever since.”

At the time, many storefronts were struggling, and the hope was that live music might help turn Louisville’s commercial district into more of a destination. What started as a local experiment quickly proved it had the power to draw a crowd.

By 2003, the event had outgrown its modest stage and moved into what would become its long-term home: the Steinbaugh Pavilion, once a steel-clad warehouse used by Steinbaugh Hardware.

“It was a pole barn, completely covered in corrugated steel,” Kron said.

Recognizing the event’s potential, the City of Louisville and the Downtown Business Association partnered to transform the building into a permanent music venue. Volunteers tore down the walls, rewired the space and built the stage that now draws thousands and thousands of people each summer.

Last summer, that stage went briefly dark. A powerful windstorm damaged the pavilion after the first Street Faire of the season, forcing Louisville to close it for repairs. For three weeks, organizers scrambled to bring in a mobile stage while crews worked behind the scenes to get things back in shape, just in time for the 2025 Street Faire season. The pavilion is ready to roar, and although the space has evolved over the years, the goal remains the same: to bring the community together through music.

The Street Faire may have been launched to fill a few slow Friday nights, but it has grown to become one of the most anticipated summer rituals in town. By the time the first guitar chord rings out, Front Street is packed with regulars who know exactly where to stand for the best sound and fastest path to the beer line. The crowd is a mix of barefoot kids, old friends reuniting and newcomers pleasantly surprised that a small town booked a band that usually headlines in Denver and Boulder.

For artists like Boulder-based Chris Daniels, the Street Faire isn’t just another tour stop.

“We’ve premiered albums here, played with Hazel Miller, and even had members of Little Feat join us onstage,” he said. “It’s a place to celebrate.”

Daniels’ band, Chris Daniels & The Kings, has become part of the Street Faire’s DNA. The longtime Boulder band has played the series for more than 15 years, including Louisville’s inaugural Faire, back in 2001. With a full horn section and a sound that leans somewhere between funk, soul, with a whole lot of Colorado rock ‘n’ roll, the Kings have long been a favorite of locals who like their music tight, brassy and loud enough to dance to.

“The first time we were asked to play at the Street Faire, we were thrilled,” said Daniels, an iconic Colorado musician himself, and a member of the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. “It was something new for us, instead of playing a bar, we were basically in a festival setting, and it was just terrific.”

One night in Street Faire history, the legendary Los Angeles band Little Feat rolled into Louisville. Daniels showed up to catch the show, but during the concert, famed rock and blues pianist Billy Payne — a longtime friend of Daniels — called him up to join.

“I thought I was going to play one song,” Daniels said. “I played the whole set. Billy wouldn’t let me leave.”

The following year, they made the collaboration official.

“A friend had the wild idea to have one of the members of Little Feat come join us for our set,” Daniels said. “So I called Bill.”

That call turned into a full-fledged collaboration in the form of Chris Daniels & The Kings featuring Bill Payne on the Street Faire stage.

“That was a really special performance,” Daniels said.

Another year, it was musical icon Hazel Miller who brought the magic. The soul singer joined the Kings for a full set that became an instant classic.

“It was one of my favorite years,” Daniels said. “Hazel sat in with our band, and there’s a wonderful poster of it. It’s a caricature drawing of Hazel and me, and my nose is the size of Cleveland and Hazel’s cheeks are like two big balloons.”

The collaboration will return in July, with Daniels and the soul songstress sharing the bill once again.

“She’ll sit in with (our set), and I’ll sit in with (her set),” he said. “It’s going to be an amazing, loud, fun, full-circle moment.”

But the magic of the Street Faire isn’t just in the cameos. The true magic lies in the way the crowd arrives ready to eat and mingle — but mostly, to hear really good music.

“They come out like they would to Red Rocks,” Daniels said. “The Street Faire doesn’t feature artists who play background music. People come because they want to hear something good.”

In the past, the Street Faire has brought in big-name bands like The Record Company, Black Joe Lewis, String Cheese Incident, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Spin Doctors, Freddy Jones Band, MarchFourth, Los Lobos, BoDeans, Tab Benoit, The Smithereens and more.

It also helps that the event is still entirely rooted in the community. Around 45 volunteers help run each night, many of them Downtown Business Association board members. They pour drinks, sell tokens, move tables and reset the whole thing again the next week.

Kron credits that commitment as one of the reasons the event has lasted this long.

“Everybody knows their role,” Kron said. “We’ve got the right people in the right places, and that’s made all the difference.”

The 2024 Street Faire season kicks off June 13, with string band Hot Buttered Rum making its fourth Faire appearance, and runs through Aug. 8. Daniels and Miller return on July 18, bringing their shared history — and probably a few surprises — to the Steinbaugh stage.

“The Kings are playing better than we’ve ever played,” Daniels said. “This is the best version of the band in our history.”

The Street Faire runs every Friday evening from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., with music starting around 6 at the Steinbaugh Pavilion, right in the heart of downtown at 824 Front Street. The free event also rolls in excellent food, cold drinks, plenty of activities for kids, and a spread of local art and crafts that somehow never drips into something corny — kettle or otherwise.