By Elisabeth Bont

Community News Editor

Smoke, noise and music rose from Eastown Saturday, as over 5,000 people of every age, race and description filled Wealthy St. to celebrate one of Grand Rapids' most distinctive neighborhoods.

An Eastown tradition for more than twenty years, Streetfair unites the community and raises money for the Eastown Community Association (ECA), said board member Melissa Fouch, who served as chairperson for Streetfair 2001.

``Eastown is a very fun, eclectic, high-spirited group of people who live here because they choose to be here,'' she said. ``The Streetfair brings us all together in one spot.''

The events, which ran from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., focused around two stages--one in a parking lot next to Yesterdog and one in the middle of Wealthy St.--and featured performances by 16 local music groups, including 19 Wheels, Mustard Plug, and Calvin's own Sweep Japonic.

Crowding the rest of Wealthy St. were 55 booths, where Streetfair attendees could adopt greyhounds, have their fortunes told, buy scented soap, join the Green Party or eat a pulled pork sandwich--all without leaving the block.

The event was co-sponsored by the ECA and the City of Grand Rapids. Local businesses like Westside Beer, Friction Records and Billy's also contributed to the event.

Money from booth fees and Streetfair t-shirt sales benefited the ECA, which serves Eastown by informing residents about crime, dealing with landlord and housing code issues, working for traffic safety (like a planned restructuring of the Wealthy/Lake/Norwood intersection) and generally improving the neighborhood, said Fouch.

Nevertheless, the Streetfair is more for Eastown than for the ECA, said Fouch. ``Most of [the money raised] goes back into putting the event on,'' she said. ``The biggest draw is that it's a community event. It's been around forever.''

David Kirchgessner, resident of Eastown for eight years and member of the band Mustard Plug, recently joined the ECA to help out his community, which he sees as ``one of the last functioning neighborhoods in Grand Rapids.''

``Everything you need to do to survive, you can do in Eastown,'' he said.

Local rock station WGRD has scheduled musical acts for previous Streetfairs, said Kirchgessner, but the ECA took over this year, bringing in a wider range of styles, including Irish pop, blues, funk and gospel.

``We want to start diversifying a little bit to better reflect the diversity in the community,'' said Kirchgessner, who was responsible for booking and scheduling bands. ``Eastown is very much a crossroads of Grand Rapids culture,'' he said.

Streetfair draws people from across Grand Rapids and even across the state, said Fouch, but although vendors and shoppers came out in droves, volunteers were more difficult to find.

Fouch blames the lack of interest on the ECA's obscurity and the residents' desire to do something more visible.

``We're such a small organization, and the things we do aren't necessarily things you see right away,'' she said.

``They want to do big things--they want to build a house. We still need people to pick up trash at Streetfair.''

But despite the Streetfair's glitches, including a score of last-minute vendors and two musical groups who never showed up to perform, the ECA considers the event a huge success and is already hard at work preparing for next year's event, said ECA Community Organizer Roberta Williams.

``This is our biggest fundraiser of the year,'' she said. ``Planning starts as soon as it's over.''