Fourth Avenue won’t be teeming this weekend with tables of handcrafted jewelry, artwork and leather belts for sale alongside food carts selling everything from grilled corn to Indian fry bread, but the annual Fourth Avenue Spring Street Fair will live on — virtually.
The Fourth Avenue Merchants Association on Wednesday announced that it’s taking the popular event online through Facebook (tucne.ws/virtualstreetfair).
From Friday through Sunday, you can browse and purchase the wares of 250 national artists and Fourth Avenue merchants who have signed on for the association’s “Virtual 50th Annual Spring Street Fair.”
“This is our small gesture, trying to help support (businesses) during this national crisis,” said Fred Ronstadt, the association’s executive director.
“When you have 300,000 people coming down the avenue over three days, that foot traffic generates so much revenue that helps them all year long. It’s a major hit when that revenue source is lost.”
Ronstadt said vendors hope to make up some of the lost revenue from the virtual fair.
The association canceled the street fair last Friday, days after the Tucson Festival of Books called off its annual event that was set for last weekend on the University of Arizona campus.
Both cancellations were in response to the growing COVID-19 pandemic.
Pima County has five confirmed cases and the United States topped 6,000 as of Wednesday.
Ronstadt said last week that the spring fair would be rolled into the winter fair that’s set for Dec. 11-13.
