The Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Department will be hosting the second annual Broad Channel Irish Festival, featuring traditional Irish food and live music.
The festival will be held at Broad Channel Memorial Field between 2nd Road and Cross Bay Boulevard on Saturday, August 8, from noon to 8 p.m.
As many as 15 vendors are set to offer traditional Irish food and goods, and activities will be held for children, including face painting and rides.
A bagpipe group and Irish step-dancers will be present during the day, and, in the evening, two bands, Jameson’s Revenge, a traditional Irish folk group, and Finn’s Fury, an Irish rock band, will entertain the crowds.
The festival was started last year as a family-oriented community fundraiser, said Dan McIntyre, 50, who is the chief of the area Volunteer Fire Department.
Money for community events, such as local political campaigns, was previously raised by local bars during a period of festivities known as “Broad Channel Mardi Gras,” an annual celebration that began on Memorial Day and ended on Labor Day.
However, a decline in the number of local bars coupled with the financial strain on bar owners has led the community to seek new avenues of fundraising.
“When I was 11 years old, there used to be 14 saloons. Now there are only two,” said McIntyre.
The proceeds from last year’s festival were given to the Broad Channel Athletic Club, which is assisting the fire department in sponsoring the event. This year money raised by the festival will be given to the Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Department to purchase a new ambulance.
“This will be our new Mardi Gras tradition,” said McIntyre, whose Irish heritage can be traced back on his paternal side.
Although the festival will appeal to the Irish community in Broad Channel, McIntyre said that he wants to encourage all Queens residents to attend.
