What features three performance stages, 38 bands, 9 DJs, artists out the whazoo, an overkill of corndogs and a hundred or so Port-O-Potties? Sunset Junction, LA's coolest street fair coming up this weekend. This year the street festival turns 28.

The show will go on without the recently departed Issac Hayes, whose name still appears on the event's posters.

Put together by the Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance, this grass roots non-profit event supports LA youth programs. SJNA supplies the stages and booths.

The artists of LA bring the funk and the noise running the gamut with World Beat, Punk, Glam, Goth, Shoe Gaze, No Depression and lots of local bands. Past years included The Donnas, The Cramps, Blonde Redhead, Rilo Kelly, X, the New York Dolls. This year's biggies are The Black Keys, Cold War Kids, Kinky, Jeffrey Osborne to name a few.

Organizers went into a mad scramble trying to find a last minute replacement for Isaac Hayes, set to headline Saturday night. Sam Moore of the legendary duo, Sam and Dave (SOUL MAN) will appear with a tribute to everyone's favorite "Chef."

Get your ride on with carnival rides for kids big and small. Two hundred booths feature local artists selling fashion, jewelry and accessories. It's all very LA, Day of the Dead and Rock being favorite themes. Guns and Roses meets Frieda Kahlo. Bags and purses are big, made and re-made from every imaginable material.

Not to be left out, local political and non-profit organizations are on hand making the world an even better place.

A day's ticket will cost you $15. Old timers might grumble because it used to be $5. Really old timers will grumble even louder; back in the day the event was free. Still one of the best summertime LA deals. Come if not for the food, music, art then the people-watching: Drag queens, gang bangers, lefties and every other person is a musician.

Obviously, parking is a bitch. You can try L.A.C.C. at Vermont and Monroe.

THE DETAILS: Sunset Junction
www.sunsetjunction.org

Story by Victoria Joyce.