Head to Hampden for the true Baltimore experience - Annual Hampden Fest on September 20 is the street fair of all street fairs, with entertainment, good food and of course, pony rides

One of the best parts about living in Baltimore is that finding a lot of the good stuff requires some hunting. It's not necessarily shouting in your face in blaring neon, but there's a lot of local color out there, and when you find it, the discovery makes it all the more thrilling.

Of course, if you never venture off of the green pastures of our lovely campus, you might never discover some of the hidden jewels of Baltimore. Lucky for you, one of the most sparkling of its gems is right in our backyard. It goes by the name of Hampden.

A small but proud Baltimore neighborhood, Hampden embodies a kitschy, blue-collar, early 1960s time warp that thrives in this Charm City in which we live.

The homes and shops in Hampden originally sprung up to support the community of mill workers and their families who moved to the neighborhood for the steady and abundant work that the nearby Jones Falls mills provided back in the 1920s.

Today, the mills are gone, but their workers' blue-collar spirit lives on, co-mingling with a creative, quirky artistry to create the strange and marvelous dichotomy that is Hampden.

You won't ever entirely understand Baltimore until you've been to Hampden. You still might not understand it even after you have. Some people get it, some people don't, but the dots might start to connect. Hampden is the set for a John Waters film. It is the farm league for the American Visionary Art Museum, the downtown museum that exhibits the work of everyday untrained artists. It is the strange combination of a city with a large working class with very little leisure time that somehow still has the freedom to be the culturally-minded "City That Reads." It is a self- described, "one-of-a-kind neighborhood, home to a mix of artists, working folks, professionals, and the occasional un-ironic beehive hairdo."

Hampden is just a few miles away from the Hopkins campus and can be reached in minutes by cutting over the river (stream) and through the woods beyond the lacrosse field, and then across the BIA fields. Bear left until you reach 36th St. and you'll feel like you've entered another world. Most of Hampden's quirky shops can be found on this street, better known as "The Avenue." Here you can browse through a variety of antique and vintage stores, great gift shops, art galleries, a Salvation Army store, used furniture shops, bookstores, restaurants, and a deluxe two-story Rofo -- the biggest you have ever seen.

Hampden holds many events throughout the year, including HonFest, a tribute to the working women of Baltimore (hons) held in July, and the Mayor's annual Christmas Parade.

However, there's no better time to check out the area than this month during the crown jewel of all Hampden's local celebrations. On Saturday, Sept. 20, Hampden will be holding its fifth annual HampdenFest, a fun-for-all street fair complete with fabulous and funky events and attractions to match the fabulous and funky neighborhood. Think of it as Spring Fair without the torrential rain.

This year's festival is billed as even bigger and better than festivals of years past, with three stages of live music featuring performances from a mix of independent rock, country, cow-punk, rockabilly, and acoustic bluegrass bands. And yes, you read that right, I said "cow-punk."

While rocking out to these eclectic bands, fest-goers can enjoy an abundance of local cuisine including pit beef, crab cakes and Angelo's "World's Largest Slice of Pizza." The thirsting masses can then wash it all down with a selection of Maryland wines and local beers provided by Brewers' Art.

With all that hearty pit-beef energy to fuel them, patrons can then stroll the Avenue alongside flamingo jeeps, stilt walkers, jugglers, and fire-eaters and enjoy an antique classic car show, juried arts and crafts, antiques, and, true to Hampden's small town root, a giant Flea Market.

The festival will also offer an entire block of events geared toward kids and the young at heart, including an all day skateboarding show from Esoteric Skateboarding, Carribbean Dancers, a Tae Kwon Do Demonstration, a magician, a 20-foot inflatable slide, a Sponge Bob Square Pants moon bounce, and pony rides.

There's nothing like enjoying a local festival to help you feel like a local, so get down to Hampden next Saturday and see this fantastic neighborhood at its best.