By Kelsey Durham
Bell Boulevard has a lot to offer, and the Bayside Village BID wants to make it known to the community.
The Sunday Stroll took over a stretch of Bell Boulevard last weekend for the second year, featuring dozens of vendors and an afternoon’s worth of family-oriented activities. The street festival, sponsored by the Bayside Village BID, offered food from businesses along the roadway from 39th to 41st Avenues along with games for children and live music and performances for families to enjoy.
“We wanted to create a family-friendly environment, and we had a lot of great sponsors this year who supported that,” said Lyle Sclair, executive director of the BID. “They really stepped up to the plate.”
Sclair said the festival was started last year as a way to showcase the products that businesses along the boulevard offer to residents. Improvements this year included the activities for kids, such as face painting and carnival games, to make the event geared more toward families. The changes to this year’s festival were noticed by parents who said they appreciated the extra activities for their children to take part in.
“We came last year and decided to come back this year,” said Carmela Marcello, a 30-year resident of Bayside who was visiting the festival with her daughter Sunday. “There’s definitely more kids stuff this year and my daughter is really enjoying it.”
Tents at last weekend’s event included booths from vendors such as the Office of Emergency Management and Holy Cross High School, where visitors stopped for information about the groups. As the festival carried on, restaurants handed out free samples of food while children and adults danced in the street to the live music being played on a stage set up in front of 40th Avenue, a part of the event that was enough to draw in some unsuspecting visitors.
“We came to have coffee and heard the music and decided to come check it out,” said Delores Michaels, a longtime Bayside resident who was enjoying the beat while sitting at a table with her husband. “I like that it’s something we can walk to and can just stop and sit and enjoy what’s happening. It’s a great idea and I would definitely come back next year.”
Sclair said he was happy with this year’s turnout and said he was glad to see people enjoying what the Sunday Stroll gave to its visitors – all of which was free to the public. He said the businesses involved were happy to be a part of the festival and hope to be able to continue it for years to come.
“This is a way for businesses to give back,” he said. “We want people to realize what Bell Boulevard has to offer.”
Reach reporter Kelsey Durham at 718-260-4573 or by e-mail at kdurham@cnglocal.com.
