This past weekend marked the annual Park Avenue Summer Art Festival here in Rochester, and of course, Wild Bill's Sixth Annual Throwdown came with it.

If you aren't from the Rochester area, Park Ave is one of the city's oldest and trendiest areas. It features a unique mix of residences and businesses, with the businesses mainly consisting of small sidewalk cafes, boutiques, and art galleries. Most of the houses in the area were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and several have since been converted into apartments. Park Ave is home to many twenty- and thirty-something singles and recently married couples. Every August, the avenue is closed off to traffic as hundreds of vendors and musicians set up for the two day summer art festival. The festival attracts thousands of people eager to buy artwork, listen to live music, or just to hang out and enjoy the area.

As a sort of unofficial tradition, many of the residents of the area throw parties during the festival weekend. The parties range in size from a handful of close friends to hundreds of people. My landlord throws one of the largest, which has become known as Wild Bill's Throwdown.

The party has quite a reputation. Two friends of mine, Shela and Jay stopped by on Saturday afternoon. Neither had been to my apartment before. I saw them walking down the street and walked up to meet them. When Shela saw the place she said "I've been to this party before." I went to two other parties that friends of Shela's were throwing that day. At both she introduced me with "You know that Wild Bill's party? He lives in that house."

I took a bunch of pictures during the party. When I get my photo gallery up and running on this site, I'll post a link.