PHOTOS: Streetdance Rewind celebrates Bloomington’s punk music history

Bloomington punks young and old came together Saturday outside the Monroe County History Center for Streetdance Rewind, a free outdoor music festival which celebrated the scene’s history with the talents of current and classic Bloomington-based bands.

The event was hosted by the history center in conjunction with the current “Punk @ The Old Library” exhibit, curated by Hilary Fleck, which archives and displays punk music memorabilia to tell the history of Bloomington’s punk scene from the 70s to the present day.

Street dances, where bands used to stop traffic and close down the street to play without permission, were an important fixture of the Bloomington punk scene in the 1980s.

Between sets at Friday’s event the emcee and community members who were active in the scene shared stories of days gone by.

The event had live music and food trucks, and local radio station WFHB and independent record labels RTR Tapes and Let’s Pretend Records hosted tables selling music and merchandise or distributing information.

By the end of the night, the event drew a crowd of about 100 people and turned the corner of E. Sixth and N. Washington Streets into a raging concert as punk fans and musicians across generations came together to dance, sing and celebrate the scene.