On Wednesday night at the Tisbury Street Fair a woman tried to catch up with her children, who were running to the fried dough stand set up by the Good Shepherd Parish. She didn’t have a chance. The kids were fueled by the smell of chewy dough caked in sugar and easily outdistanced her.

Where there's smoke there's firemen. Four alarm burgers, anyone? — Mark Lovewell

“Every year,” the mom said, in between breaths. “Welcome to the street fair,” she added.

The Tisbury Street Fair is an annual event celebrating the town’s founding. This year Tisbury turned 344. Since the fair’s origins in 1971 to celebrate the town’s third centennial, the event has always been a time for everyone on the Island to come together for food, music and fun following the holiday festivities of the Fourth of July.

Main street was shut down to cars and pedestrians and local businesses owned the entire area. There were shoppers, onlookers and even the occasional Vineyard resident taking in the sights, sounds and merchandise of the birthday bash.

Bob Grawi plays the Gravikord and his wife Pip Klein provides the beat. — Mark Lovewell

Lillian Robinson of The Vineyard Equestrian brought her mobile store of horse-themed products that she sells online and at various summer events including the artisans fair.

“We support Vineyard artisans, but we’re just starting out,” said Ms. Robinson. “Things like this can help.”

Mocha Mott’s came out of doors to help feed and caffeinate the masses, setting up several tables with coffee and cookies.

Selectman Melinda Loberg enlightens passersby about the watershed. — Mark Lovewell

“There is a larger amount of people here than we could ever get in the store in two hours,” said employee Annie Diamond. “So it really allows us to reach a ton more people.”

The cloudy skies may have deterred some people but the crowd was still thick to the very end — strolling, eating and listening to the live music. Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish performed, starting up a little after 7 p.m.

“Few less people maybe,” said the Jeremy Berlin, who plays keyboard for the band. “Still good.”

Rosebud Balloons is out in force. — Mark Lovewell

And throughout the event, the Tisbury police and firemen kept watch and talked with young children who looked on with awe at the fire truck parked in the middle of one end of the street.

“Unfortunately we don’t always have parking spaces like in Edgartown or Oak Bluffs,” said Sgt. Tim Stobie, who was helping block off the street from approaching cars. “But for this town, this is it.”

Happy birthday, Tisbury.