Shakedown V.2 – A Festival Celebrating Community and Art Through Deadhead Culture Imagine yourself in the mid-1970s. You’re a young person who stumbles across a band unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. Their music tells stories of strange places, long journeys, love, freedom, and life lived outside the repressive rules of society. You put on your most comfortable walking shoes, your favorite bell-bottom jeans, grab your backpack, and head out to the highway with your thumb in the air. Before long, a psychedelic-painted bus pulls over, and just like that, you’re on the road with a traveling community following the music wherever it goes. You are transformed into a free spirit on a life-changing adventure.

As thousands of fans followed the Grateful Dead from town to town, they had to figure out how to eat, how to buy tickets for the shows, and how to keep the journey going. Over time, as the concerts ended and crowds poured into the parking lots, a marketplace appeared. People sold handmade clothing, jewelry, art, food, patches, and anything else they could create or carry. Fans bought these items as souvenirs, sellers earned enough money to get to the next show, and this traveling marketplace became known as Shakedown Street. Over time, Shakedown Street became just as much a part of the culture as the concerts themselves — a place where music, art, community, and freedom all came together.

Inspired by that spirit, Standing Rock Cultural Arts (SRCA) has created their own version of Shakedown Street in Kent, hosting Shakedown V.1 in 2025 at their gallery at 300 N. Water Street. The event brought together musicians, artists, vendors, and community for a full day of music, art, food, and collaboration. Visitors explored rooms full of handmade goods, live performances, participated in a drum circle and open jam session, and shared food and conversation in a welcoming, creative environment.

2026 brings Shakedown V.2, expanding the event into a two-day festival and continuing to build a local version of Shakedown Street right here on North Water Street, a corridor famously imbued in the history of music.

The event will kick off Friday, May 29th with a Movie Night featuring the 2003 Grateful Dead documentary Festival Express. Bring your friends for this donation-based low-key event in the SRCA performance hall.

Saturday morning begins with a Grateful Dead–themed yoga session led by instructor Eric Dreger at 10-11am. This is also a donation-based session, located next door in the FJ Kluth Gallery. An early-day stretch will warm you up for your groovy dances later.

Starting Saturday at noon and continuing until 11pm, SRCA will be filled with vendors and artists including Serendipitous Finds, Tarot by Dawn, Sundancer by Laurie, Northern Ohio Deadheads, and Hippie Fox Rocks (contact us to be included!). Everyone is invited to come in to check out the scene,

with the request of a love-donation to support our mission of Providing Art to All. Outside, the Roll Call food truck will be in operation across the street at Bent Tree Coffee, while Standing Stone Care Collective will be creating a vegan meal for festival goers for a love-donation in the SRCA kitchen.

Throughout the day, visitors can also participate in children’s activities like sidewalk chalk art, a drum circle, and an open jam session, continuing the tradition of community participation that defines Shakedown Street culture.

Neighboring businesses along North Water Street are invited to participate, with the goal of this experience to extend onto the sidewalks and throughout the DORA district, turning North Water Street into a true Shakedown Street for the day — full of music, art, vendors, food, and community activity.

As the day draws down about 6pm, SRCA will be host to a lineup of local musicians in our performance hall. The vendors may have closed up their wares, but the party is just getting started!

More details will be announced as planning continues. Watch for updates on social media and the Standing Rock Cultural Arts website. Artisans, performers, vendors, and community groups interested in participating are encouraged to get involved by contacting us or doing their own thing along the Shakedown corridor on North Water Street, Kent, Ohio.

Shakedown V.2 Presented by Standing Rock Cultural Arts Center

https://www.standingrock.net/ Contact: srcakentoh@gmail.com May 29 & 30, 2026 12:00 PM – 11:00 PM

300 N. Water Street, Suite H Kent, Ohio

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