CREDIT: FACEBOOK.COM/OURSTREET
In June 2013, Our Street Festival took over Dundas Street, closing it off from traffic and inviting Londoners to come out, make friends, and have fun. This year’s festival, now called the Dundas Street Festival, is presented by the Our Street Festival and

On June 14, Dundas Street will come alive with artists, performers and vendors, turning downtown London into a family-friendly street party.

Organizers are currently seeking street performers and performance artists to participate in the festivities, and they're encouraging Fanshawe community members to sign up.

“We want [the festival] to be artists with original work — things they've created themselves, or collectives that are a group of artists that are commonly working together,” explained Alison Challis, producer of the London Fringe Festival. “We would love to do a call-out to encourage students at Fanshawe or faculty at Fanshawe to come out. If they have things that they're working on, we'd love to see them as a part of this festival.”

The organizers are looking for vibrant, community-focused people and groups that will “activate Dundas Street, engage people, do something fun and different and get people stepping out of their shells,” Challis said.

They'd like to see exhibition/public art works; installations that activate the space, such as picnic tables; spoken word, musical and theatrical performances; interactive games; and other activities that engage people in skill-building and healthy living, such as dance lessons.

This is a family event, so organizers are not looking for fundraising events, demonstrations, rallies or religious ceremonies. “We're really encouraging families to come out ... anything that is a part of the street festival does need to be family-friendly.”

Dundas Street has been home to the festival — previously called the Car-Free Festival and the Our Street Festival — for the past four years. New for this summer, organizers of the Fringe Festival and the Our Street Festival are teaming up to make the event bigger and better than ever.

“This year's Street Festival fuses together the goals of both organizations — Our Street London's focus on promoting active transportation through community building events, and London Fringe's goal to create accessible environments where artists and audiences can connect,” said Challis.

“Our Street London's always had a really environmental, green living, healthy living focus, and always had some artisan stuff as well. With our connections and contacts in the arts world, we knew that we could really bump this festival up together and make it something even more exciting than it's been in the past,” she added.

The Dundas Street Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 14. That night, Nuit Blanche will transform downtown into a work of art from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. For more information, check out the Events tab on londonfringe.ca. To sign up as an artist/performer for either event, contact Challis at info@londonfringe.ca or 519-434- 0606.