clevescene.com20%
Hessler Street Fair Returning in October After Seven-Year Break 27%
By Mark Oprea35%
8/3/2026, 7:05:39 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 25 faulty reasoning types, including Post Hoc (False Cause), False Dilemma, and Biased Writer Voice, with Optimism Bias as the most egregious example at 12.1% saturation with 90 hits. Analysis detected 821 faulty-reasoning hits from 744 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 32.7% and a BS Rank of 27% (19,844 of 26,881 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 73.80% of the article peer group.
After a seven year hiatus, the Hessler Street Fair is back this October.
New York has its Woodstock.
San Francisco, its Pop Festival.
And Nevada its Burning Man.
And for decades, Cleveland had its own festival of counter-culture, the Hessler Street Fair, a weekend of good vibes and music nestled on the L-shaped, brick-laden street adjacent to Case Western Reserve University.
But not for the past seven years.
That’s about to change this fall, when the Hessler makes its welcome return to University Circle.
On October 3, a handful of bands and some 40 artists will convene to usher in a new era of both the fest and what the fest means for the block.
“To put it briefly, we miss it,” Sydney Slacas, a board member of the Hessler Neighborhood Association, told Scene.
“You know, everyone’s in a good mood, people dance, look at art, run into people they haven’t seen in the past year,” she said.
“It’s just that communal spirit of people coming together to enjoy themselves and have a good time.”
Started in 1969 by a tight-knit band of neighbors, the Street Fair was a community tool to protest Case Western’s expansion.
It soon formalized as the Hessler Neighborhood Association, a body that refused to allow the street’s landlords to intentionally depreciate home values in a bid to profit in a deal to a land-hungry university.
The HNA scored a big win in 1975.
Hessler Street became Cleveland’s first official historic district, a title that allowed the block to fend off any major changes.
The HNA’s annual fair fueled a way of promoting local culture that in turn helped fund ongoing maintenance and expected upkeep.
A dearth of organizers and money led to a ten-year hiatus, in 1985.
Until the Hessler’s 50th anniversary in 2019, its hosts routinely balanced the work of the Street Fair’s upfront costs—permits, insurance, parking —with its beloved qualities: its kaleidoscopic buses, its jam bands, its iconic lemonade.
(A family secret recipe.)
Typically a multi-day festival held close to Memorial Day weekend, this year’s Hessler will span seven hours on October 3.
Left, Timothy Smith stands in front of the house on Hessler Street he grew up in.
Right, members of the Hessler Neighborhood Association: Matthew Canel, Kristina Collins and Sydney Slacas.
“It’s why we’re calling it a soft reboot,” Timothy Smith, a produce salesman and bass player who grew up on Hessler Street, told Scene.
“It’s just one day, but we’re gonna try and bring as much of what you remember from the Fair back into as we can,” he added, “without overstressing our limited labor and funds.”
Along with holding an organizer role, Smith had lately played cane-wielding historian and advisor to a re-energized HNA committee, mostly twentysomethings that have some sort of connection to the street.
Jolted by the Cleveland Planning Commission’s okay of a new apartment complex—the first in a century—the HNA funneled irritation into a new pathway for Hessler’s upkeep.
(The land was former host of the Little Hessler Museum.)
A community garden formed.
New street trees were planted.
Hessler Court’s famous wooden bricks were, after the HNA’s push, replaced in 2024 .
In tandem with a new website , the team began accepting donations and grants, including one from NEOMA, to revive the Street Fair with an air of professionalism.
This year’s the first ever performing bands “will be paid by and large.”
Slated for performance so far are Hello 3D, the Jim Miller Band, Charlie Mosbrook & Friends, Country Honk, Hoodoo BBQ and Austin Walkin’ Cane.
About 40 artists and vendors will be set up throughout the day.
If October 3 goes well, the HNA told Scene the Hessler could expand back into a multi-day fest and grow its artist count.
But before any predictions are slotted, the team simply wants to put on a really tremendous party once again.
While reminding themselves it isn’t 1969.
Or 1995.
Or 2019, for that matter.
“I think that Hessler as an organism does, like everything else around it, does kind of have to either evolve or die,” Kristina Collins, a board member who’s lived on the street since 2012, said.
“Hey, I’m just excited for it to get together.”
“It’s going to be a family reunion,” Smith added.
Definitely for those who recall the first.
“There’s nothing wrong with tradition,” he said.
“Tradition creates community.
Tradition creates memory.
And tradition creates connection.”
Speakers
3speakers25%attributed speech557writer words
Selected voice
100%flagged-word coverageKristina Collins
44 attributed words24% of attributed speech59% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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Analysis
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