Fair St. Louis is another item on the long lists of free activities in St. Louis. I went down for one day of the Fair this year to listen to The Counting Crows and watch fireworks and was both discouraged and encouraged. Back in the day when Fair St. Louis used to be the VP Fair (a name with a very odd provenance) it used to be the biggest 4th of July celebration in the entire country. The crowd on Saturday, July 6th was decidedly small and the fireworks diminished. On the other hand, walking down Washington Avenue, it was clear that downtown St. Louis (or at least the north half) is far more vibrant and vital than it was in the 80’s. I will take that trade off. And when the Arch gets fully integrated into downtown, as one can see the plans for in this video, that is really going to be great! They had just better not renovate out my favorite exhibit which has the beaver stream!