By DAVE SCHULTZ
Kristin Butler, a 22-year-old from Fort Wayne, had a moment on the stage of the Street Fair Idol program Saturday night.
Butler came out on the stage, grabbed the microphone, and let the audience hear it. As Dayle Mentzer, one of the emcees of the program put it, “and then this voice comes out of her.”
Several minutes later, she was the winner of the 14th annual Street Fair Idol event.
Butler sang what was certainly the most obscure non-original song of the competition — “She Used to Be Mine,” from the musical “Waitress” — and was the judge’s choice for the top honor and the $700 check that goes with it.
Second place went to 18-year-old Thomas Garza, a rapper who amazed the crowd with an original composition, “Look at Me Now.” Garza’s performance referenced the Street Fair Idol competition and his third-place performance in 2022 with the line “I came in third but I’m coming back.”
Addison Schroeder, who performed “Proud Mary” in the style of Tina Turner, was third.
For Butler, the top honor and the money takes some financial pressure off of her.
“I’m in college (Ivy Tech) right now and it’s kind of expensive, and I was looking at the times for the Bluffton Street Fair and I saw that there was this competition,” she said after she was announced as the winner. “I thought it was a lot of money. I thought I had nothing to lose.”
So Butler, a Homestead High School graduate who said she hasn’t sung on a stage of any kind for four years, was rather surprised to hear her name.
“I totally did not expect to place top three at all. They announced second and third and I thought, ‘This has been an experience,” she said. When she was asked what her thoughts were, she felt she couldn’t express them. “I had no words,” she said.
She has family members in Bluffton, which is why she was looking at the times for the Street Fair events.
The trio of Annika Bovender, Ryan Lehnertz and Jaime Macklin served as judges for the competition. Rick Elwell and Mentzer served as the emcees.
Other performers Saturday night were, in order of appearance:
• William Fiechter of Keystone, who led off the show with a rendition of “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” the John Denver classic.
• Todd Shalley, who was in the Street Fair Idol for the second time, performed Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page.”
• Aaron Moser, another Street Fair Idol veteran, performed “Gratitude” by Brandon Lake. Moser said he has only been singing in front of audiences for two and a half years, and Lehnertz urged him to continue. “Please keep doing what you’re doing,” he said.
• Max Ford of Fort Wayne, who sang a powerful rendition of Etta James “At Last.”
• Emily Edmison, a senior at Norwell High School, sang “Two Black Cadillacs” by Carrie Underwood.
• Eric Williams, who performed “Homespun Love” by Keith Urban.
• Heaven Ragg, who sand “Somebody to Love” by Queen.
As mentioned, it was the 14th year for Street Fair Idol, and Saturday night’s show drew a packed house to the West Washington Street stage.
“This event is unique,” Elwell said. “It crosses demographic lines. You can bring your kids to it. You can bring your grandparents to it.”
daves@news-banner.com
