San Diego promoter Rob Hagey started Street Scene in 1984 as a two-stage community event that featured roots acts like Los Lobos, The Neville Brothers, The Blasters, Robert Cray and X. The event doubled as a marketing campaign for downtown San Diego. Although Street Scene grew in size each year, the lineup remained diverse–jazz, blues, rock, Latin, reggae, rock, roots–until 2004. Mainstream rock and hip-hop acts like P.O.D., Ludacris, Jack Johnson, Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World and The Killers were invited. He also made the event all-ages for the first time since 1994. Street Scene pulled in a record 105,000 people in two days, breaking its own record of 100,000, set back in 2001. Squeezed out of the Gaslamp, Street Scene moved to Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley for 2005 and 2006. While Hagey and his production company did an admirable job of transforming the venue–and the stadium’s expansive parking lot made for easy stage-to-stage access and included big-ticket headliners (Pixies and The White Stripes in ’05, Tool and Kanye West in ’06).
-Via San Diego City Beat