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Downtown Square

Denton's Historic downtown square is centered around the former county courthouse which now serves as a museum. Bordered by Elm, Oak, Hickory and Locust Streets, the downtown square is surrounded by many shops and restaurants, most of which have been in business for many years.

Historic Fry Street

[ Redevelopment

In May 2006, the 100-block of Fry Street was purchased by United Equities, a Houston-based real estate company, which announced that several of the historic buildings would be demolished to accommodate a new mixed-use center. Known as Fry Street Village, the center would include lower level retail with apartments above. A grass roots effort by the non-profit organization Save Fry Street began soon thereafter seeking to preserve Fry Street as a historic and cultural icon for the city. The group was unsuccessful in preventing the demolition of two of the buildings, the Tomato Pizza restaurant and the Texas Jive bar. Most of the remaining businesses on the property were served with eviction notices with a vacating date of January 31, 2007, but it was not until May 2007 that businesses along Fry Street began to close. In June 2007, several local activists took over the gutted building that housed The Tomato Pizza, until the building burned in a raging arson fire on June 27, 2007. James Taylor Moseley, a local activist who had chained himself to The Tomato for three days, was arrested and accused of setting the fire.

Fry Street Fair

The Fry Street Fair was a mostly annual event held by the independent fraternity Delta Lodge. It was typically the most attended event of the year on Fry Street, with many bands performing. After two of the largest and most critically acclaimed fairs in 2001 and 2002, Fry Street Fair was moved to Deep Ellum in nearby Dallas due to overcrowding and complications with the city of Denton. However, a scaled-down version of the fair returned to the Fry Street area in 2005. In 2007, the Fry Street Fair moved yet again to the North Texas State Fairgrounds within the city. After losing money in both 2006 and 2007, the festival's creators announced that the fair would no longer be thrown.

Music

The pervasive music culture that exists in Denton was originated in the University of North Texas's College of Music, a top-rated institution that draws musicians from all over the world. The college's Jazz Studies program, established in 1947, was the first of its kind in the country, and in more recent years the college's Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (CEMI) has developed its own distinct reputation as an internationally-renowned center for teaching, research, and groundbreaking music creation.

However, the vibrant and diverse music culture garnering press attention in Denton today, exists on its own outside of the rigorous and disciplined world of UNT's College of Music. The thriving independent music scene has emerged and gained notoriety separate of Denton's more civically embraced academic music establishments.

In recent years, Denton's has seen the arrival of musicians creating work outside the University of North Texas College of Music. These Denton transplants move there because they are aware of Denton's reputation as a music town, but they are most familiar with the independent music, not the studied musicianship, the town has produced.

The city's live music venues are chiefly supported by Denton's very active music listening audience, but show attendance is often partly composed of Dallas/Ft.Worth music listeners. Dallas's largest alternative weekly, the Dallas Observer, once even suggested Dallas music listeners drive north to Denton to hear the best local music Dallas had to offer.

Denton's music culture stays busy enough to sustain four commercial recording studios operating within the city, as well as several continually booked residential studio operations. Denton even received a reference in the title of the opening song of The Mountain Goats 2002 album All Hail West Texas, "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton."

In 2007 and 2008, Denton's music scene received feature attention from The Guardian, Pop Matters, and The New York Times. In December 2008 Paste Magazine named Denton the best music scene in the United States.

 Denton Arts and Jazz Festival

North Texas State Fair and Rodeo

Started in 1928, the annual fair held in August is compact by state fair standards, yet covers every aspect a local fair would encompass. The fair brings in over 100,000 people annually during its average 9 day run. It has been held at the North Texas State Fair Grounds, where it continues to be today, since 1948.