Last Friday, the Denton Record-Chronicle published a story claiming that Fry Street Fair organizer and Dirty Dick’s Bar owner Andy Saunders had the blessing of the Delta Lodge, the musical festival's former operator. Delta Lodge says that is not accurate and that the blessing was conditional.
Corey Bowe, chair of the Delta Lodge board of directors, said she found out about the article while on the phone with Saunders last Friday around 4:30 p.m. Bowe says she was not contacted by the Denton Record-Chronicle prior to the article being published, but instead she contacted them afterward. Reporter Juan Betancourt, who wrote the article, said he was waiting for Saunders to put Bowe in touch with him.
Rewind to three weeks ago, two days after the new Fry Street Fair made its first post on Instagram, the Delta Lodge, through Bowe, contacted Saunders. No one from Delta Lodge had been contacted about the revival of its once iconic festival.
“We don’t want to kill his idea or festival,” Bowe said. “We saw that they were bringing back the event, using images from past Fry Street Fairs to promote it.” At that point, Bowe said, Delta Lodge membership seemed concerned.
Saunders, a Fry Street bar owner, said the hardest part of this was trying to reach Delta Lodge. It doesn’t have a website and it does, indeed, take more than a quick Google search to find a member. He said he did not know anyone who knew someone affiliated with Delta Lodge.
“I know how to get a hold of them, they’re probably not going to like it, but I know how to get a hold of them,” Saunders said. He found old fair photos on Flickr and shared those on Instagram in a post that reads: “Join us in welcoming back an iconic event!” Saunders said he did this “just to spark a fire, and it worked.” This was the festival's first post on Instagram, on Feb. 26.
Corey Bowe, chair of the Delta Lodge board of directors, sorts through memorabilia from past Fry Street Fairs, when Delta Lodge ran the festival.
Sara Button
Bowe said Saunders does not want Delta Lodge involved this year.
Saunders said that is not true. Instead, he insisted it was the local bar owners and others who were reluctant to include the lodge.
“It’s not that they can’t be involved,” Saunders said, “but based on the few years before the original fair ended, there are mixed feelings and emotions about how the fair was run and what happened at the fair.
He suggested that the Delta Lodge people should come out and have fun at the upcoming event slated for April 27–28. He said he would provide Delta Lodge a tent at the fair and offered to buy their beer.
“I don’t feel like we have a role in this, and I don’t know what to do with it,” Bowe said.
“Business owners had contractual agreements with Delta Lodge, and those agreements weren’t met,” Saunders said. The biggest pushback has been local bar and business owners in the Fry Street District.
Bowe says she cannot confirm or deny those accusations without knowing what contracts are being referenced. “It’s definitely possible,” she said. “I want to offer [again] to take a look at any lingering issues from 20 years ago and make them right.” Bowe said the same offer was made in the initial meeting with Saunders.
Saunders said he doesn’t know yet whether he is willing to partner with the Delta Lodge for future iterations of the Fry Street Fair. “I don’t want any repeats of the old Fry Street Fair,” Saunders said.
The Original Fry Street Fair
The original Fry Street Fair was a moment in time that cannot be duplicated. The first Fry Street Fair was in 1980 and it ended 27 years later in 2007.Delta Lodge, a fraternity-like organization, formed in 1987 with 40 original founding members. Todd Kaastad, founding member of Delta Lodge and original Fry Street Fest organizer, was a freshman at North Texas State University, now the University of North Texas.
“It was another world,” Kaastad said. “[Denton] was a sleepy little town for kids that were looking for something other than a nap. There were no liquor stores, and the bars closed at midnight, so the order of the day was house parties.”
Kaastad says it took 25 years of evolution and self-draining to get Fry Street Fair to the point where it was. “It became so top-heavy that it was nearly impossible to pull off because of all the fingers in the pie, including several fingers from the city of Denton.”
Regarding the new Fry Street Fair, Kaastad called out issues with integrity. “They co-opted our photographs, marketing materials and published them as their own,” he said. “It seems clear that they intended to benefit from confusion, and that would be a big departure from the ethos of Fry Street Fair.”
“If you want to use the name Fry Street Fair,” Bowe said, “there are certain benchmarks that [Delta Lodge] would love to see met.” Charitable donations, student involvement, community benefit and transparency were quickly listed.
Bowe helped organize Fry Street Fairs for 13 years, along with being a founding member of the NX35 (later named 35 Denton) music festival. She knows a thing or two about running events, especially in Denton. She played roller derby for a decade; eight of those years she was head of production. Bowe said, all-in-all, she’s helped organize 200 to 250 events.
The New Fry Street Fair
The trademark for Fry Street Fair expired on Sept. 21, 2012.One of Saunders’ businesses, Fry Street Entertainment District LLC, established on Jan. 17, 2024, according to the Texas Comptroller Taxable Entities search, is the company that owns the business name for Fry Street Fair. Saunders said they are in the process of trademarking the name.
Saunders said that he has been thinking about this idea for years, but actual planning started about 16 months ago. The team is made up of two people: Saunders and an event coordinator. Saunders said they are working on vendors, volunteers, staff and advertising materials this week.
They’ve attended City Council meetings but have not signed in or spoken out. He said they met their local councilman, Paul Meltzer, not too long ago and that he is very pro-Fry Street.
“I hope this is the beginning of a whole new focus on Denton’s original cool entertainment district,” Meltzer said. “Fry Street was and can again be an awesome, fun counterpart to downtown — the other place to hang out in Denton and have a great time.”
Dirty Dick’s Bar is the only investor of the festival. There were no official sponsorship contracts as of Tuesday. The bar is owned by Saunders.
This is the first time in 19 years that the Fry Street Fair is happening on Fry Street. In 2003, the Fry Street Fair moved to Deep Ellum before returning to Denton in 2005. It was on Fry Street again, ending in 2007.
“This is definitely their concept and their idea,” Bowe said. She asked Saunders for proof of concept of a good product in trade for the blessing of Delta Lodge. “We’ve never received that.”
Saunders said that wasn’t the deal, though. According to him, the deal was for Delta Lodge members to come out and have fun at the fair and see if they like it, then there could be future conversations.
“I was assured this was going to be an homage to the Delta Lodge,” Bowe said. “I appreciate where the ideas are coming from, and I appreciate that it’s trying to be repeated.”
Why wouldn’t they just call it the Fry Street Fest, though? Or something completely different and new? Saunders said that is because they are planning on doing a separate event in the fall and calling it Fry Street Fest. “We don’t want to mess with Jazz Fest or anything like that, or any other events.”
Thin Line Festival, a multi-format festival held in Denton for the last 17 years, takes place April 24–28, the same Saturday and Sunday as Fry Street Fair.
“When we talked to the city, there was no mention of Thin Line Fest because they did not have to pull permits,” Saunders said.
Thin Line Festival uses private venues versus an outdoor stage, so a noise ordinance permit is not needed. Starting last year, though, Thin Line Festival organizers filed for permits to close off certain streets for the Maker’s Fest, but only for the Saturday of the event.
“It feels pretty cool to have an off-fest event during Thin Line,” Josh Butler, founder and director of Thin Line said. “Like we’ve made it! The fact is there are way more quality musicians in Denton than we can squeeze into our fest. This is another opportunity for local bands, and it offers our out-of-town guests a reason to explore more of the community. I wish them the best.”
Thin Line Festival is the longest-running documentary film festival in Texas.
Saunders said permit applications have been filed as of two months ago, including a noise ordinance permit. “There was a little bit of pushback in the beginning because the city thought we were going to be affiliated with Delta,” Saunders said. “Once we cleared that air and said this is a new Fry Street Fair and has nothing to do with the old one, that’s when things started moving forward.”
The city of Denton confirmed that Fry Street Fair has been given a notice to proceed after filing applications for necessary permits.
Fry Street Fair will close down Hickory Street, Mulberry Street, Avenue A and Fry Street around the bars and businesses.
Despite the controversy, people seem excited.
“We are so honored to take part,” said local musician Matthew Grey of Matthew and the Arrogant Sea. “It was a rather influential moment in time for me as well. Seeing how powerful the local music scene was and how everyone came together was inspiring to me as a young artist.”
Saunders said he is expecting the worst but hoping for the best. He anticipates between 5,000 and 8,000 attendees, with room for 18,000. A third of the budget has gone toward safety, Saunders said.
The festival sitemap is being reviewed and approved by the city this week. There will be four stages including a DJ/hip-hop stage. From 30 to 45 vendors are expected, with room for up to 50.
The festival's website went live on Monday with a music lineup including 32 bands and more to come. Tickets are available for sale through the website.
