The 22nd annual Fresh Pond Road Street Festival has been whittled down to two days, instead of the usual four.
This year’s festival — which is run by the Federazione Italo-Americana di Brooklyn and Queens — will take place on Saturday, Sept. 10, from noon to 10 p.m., and on Sunday, Sept. 11, from noon to 9 p.m., on Fresh Pond Road between Palmetto and Menahan streets. The original plan was to have the festival run from Sept. 8 through Sept. 11.
Earlier this year, Community Board 5 (CB 5) recommended the denial of the four-day street festival by a vote of 27-8. Many people in the community were opposed to having a four-day festival since it shuts down a portion of Fresh Pond Road for four consecutive nights, causing a slew of traffic problems for residents, as well as leaving fewer parking spots. The community has continuously raised concerns over quality-of-life issues, including the festival’s late hours and some instances of rowdy behavior.
“I believe this was a compromise that the Mayor’s Office of Citywide Event Coordination and Management made seeing that the community board overwhelmingly opposed the four-day festival,” said Gary Giordano, district manager of CB 5. “The other street festivals in the Community Board 5 area, the applications have been willing to just conduct them on Sunday.”
However, Michael Conigliaro, the managing director advisor of the Federazione Italo-Americana di Brooklyn and Queens, said that the city permitted the festival for only two days due to the scheduled work to take place at Fresh Pond Road and Metropolitan Avenue.
According to Conigliaro, there have been no complaints with any city agency and none pending, and no arrests due to activity at the festival in previous years.
“All of us at the federation have a very good working relation with Captain Mark Wachter and the team at the 104th Precinct,” Conigliaro said, referring to the precinct’s commanding officer by name. “We have meetings before, during and after the feast with the 104 and we are in constant contact with them during the feast to make sure everything is running smoothly.”
The festival will have a plethora of food and drink vendors, games and informational booths on education and health care issues for community members. The Federazione Italo-Americana di Brooklyn and Queens will also have a tent that will have early 1900s antique household and office items on display, as well as old pictures of the community.
On Sept. 10, there will be opera singers at the feast to do a performance, and on Sept. 11 at 3 p.m. there will be a color guard on hand to honor the 15th anniversary of 9/11.
“We at the federation are proud to sponsor this, and proud to do this in the honor of Peter Cardella who started the feast 22 years ago,” Conigliaro added.
