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Street Scene is an annual summer music festival held in downtown San Diego, and billed as one of the country's most famous and elaborate block parties.

In 2010, watch for the 26th annual Street Scene to kick off on the last weekend in August (dates to be confirmed).

The first Street Scene was held in 1984, and had just two stages at either end of a single block in downtown San Diego. Festival goers were free to drift between the two stages and take in a wide variety of musical acts.

It wasn't long, however, until Street Scene outgrew its two stages and started adding more. And as the festival grew, so too did the tastes of the festival goers. New acts from a variety of genres started emerging, which is the root of the reputation that Street Scene has today of playing host to a wide variety of musicians.

Eventually one day wasn't enough, and so the Street Scene of 1990 became a two day event, with another all-ages day on Sunday added a few years later. As the music festival grew and became more popular it was forced to change venues several times, ending up in Qualcomm stadium in 2005, and Coors amphitheatre in 2007.

But Street Scene has not forgotten its roots, and in 2008 Street Scene was once again a true open air festival, taking place along the streets of downtown San Diego.

Today, Street Scene is one of America's most popular music festivals, and has been host to a wide variety of acts, including such stars as The Black Eyed Peas, R.E.M., Snoop Dogg, Patti Smith, the B-52s, Beck, The Black Crows, as well as local up and coming musicians.

And while Street Scene started out as a local event, and it is still quite popular with locals, people from all over the country descend on San Diego each summer to enjoy this amazing music festival.

More about Street Scene around the Web:

Street Scene - The official site with complete information on ticket purchase, weekend passes, official lineup and schedule, map, festival history & photo gallery.

Street Scene (San Diego music festival) - Wikipedia overview with background history, complete lists of performers from years past, related resources.

also see related feature -> San Diego Zoo Top Attractions