Longstone Streetfest

The Longstone Street Festival was a great tribute to the heritage of Milford, OH.  Main street was closed and filled with vendors, bands, family activities and delicious food.  At each end of Main St. was a stage with bands starting at staggered times.  The planning of this event was so meticulous that every band started within a few minutes of their scheduled times and I managed to shoot all 20 bands as well as a bit of the festival in between.  Big props to Far-I-Rome Productions for putting on a very fun, organized and rocking event.

• Favorite moment: Getting the chance to see the festival from one of the roofs for a bit
• Least favorite moment: Serious back pain for much of the day, but soldiering through was well worth it
• Best show of the day: Backbeat
• Best new discovery (for me): Newport Secret Six
• Best surprise: Running into many friends – new and old – throughout the day

The backdrop of all the fun was the quaint and beautiful buildings of Old Milford.  For more information on Milford and how Longstone got its name read this excerpt from Longstone’s website:

The Longstone Street Festival is a continuation of the tradition built with The Sunflower Street Festival. Longstone got its historic name from John Kugler for whom the expansion of the Milford area is accredited. Most of the stone buildings on Mill St. and adjacent to it were built by John. The building now housing the Vilardo Agency was Mill Street Distillery; the building east of it was the corn warehouse.

The long stone building on Main Street was the whiskey warehouse and had the cooperage shop on the second floor. The Milford Library building was built by Kugler about 1835; the first floor was a warehouse, the second floor a public meeting place. The stone used to build the library was collected by John Kugler after excavating a large amount to build his own toll free bridge.

The bridge did not happen, thus with the stone gathered, Kugler did himself a service and erected these buildings for storage of his distillery and gristmill products. Buildings that have since been put to new uses adding the diversity, history and charm that is The Historic MIlford District.

Take a look at some of my favorite shots from the day.