By Nathan Duke
Douglaston will host its first arts festival Oct. 18 when as many as 40 artists will display their various crafts and a variety of musicians will provide entertainment, a trustee for the Douglaston Little Neck Historical Society said this week.
The Douglaston Village Arts Festival will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18, near the roundabout at the weeping beech tree by the community’s Long Island Rail Road stop, which is at 235th Street and 41st Avenue off the Douglaston Parkway.
“The whole point is that there are a lot of local artists in Douglaston,” said Dan O’Byrne, a trustee for the Douglaston Little Neck Historical Society. “So this will give them the ability to show their artistic talents, and it will be something positive for the neighborhood. It’s very grass roots.”
The festival will feature as many as 40 artists, including a cake decorator, painters, sculptors, jewelers, a stained glass artist, a chocolatier and an artisanal soap maker.
“It’s a neglected bunch of skills,” O’Byrne said.
Music at the event will include local rock ‘n’ roll band Where Is Keith?, the Rusty String Band of Douglaston, a chamber music trio from Little Neck and jazz outfit Radio I-Ching. The festival, which is free, will also include performance artists, local poets and a dance troupe composed of Douglaston students.
Food will be provided by local vendors and face painting will be available for children who attend. The rain date for the event is Oct. 25.
The festival was founded after Douglaston resident Karin Von Schmeling noticed that a number of artists of varying types lived in the community and visited the Douglaston Market, which is owned by Von Schmeling’s husband, O’Byrne said. The Douglaston event will be modeled after the 79-year-old Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit in Greenwich Village, at which artists mount their paintings on fence railings or easels set up on the sidewalk.
The event is sponsored by the Douglaston Little Neck Historical Society, Community Board 11, the Douglaston Village Chamber of Commerce, the Doug Bay Manor Association, the Douglaston Civic Association, the Douglas Manor Association and the Udall’s Cove Preservation Committee.
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at nduke@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
