NYC24 - Special Report 2004

Our roaming reporter snaps the hour-by-hour. Click the times for pics.

Selling in the Streets, by Yetnayet Aberra

here’s nothing like a street erupting into life and color under the warm rays of spring to end gray skies and winter blues. New Yorkers love their street festivals and hundreds lingered at the Union Square Community Coalition Festival in the afternoon on Sunday April 18.

The festival, which spanned six blocks between 17th and 23rd Street and lasted from late morning to sundown, drew in people of every age from all across the city. They strolled and shopped leisurely, checking out the vendors that peddled everything from hot sizzling sausages to African drums.

"New York is special because so many different ethnicities come together and it's so much fun to buy all this odd stuff."

he Union Square Community Coalition Festival is typical of the many street festivals and markets for which New York is famous. Each year, the Mayor’s office handles several thousand requests to hold street festivals in all five boroughs.

The Union Square festival drew over 200 hundred vendors, from a variety of ethnic groups who sell imported goods and handicraft from all corners of the world. The festivals give these vendors a chance to do business on the weekend since many of them also operate stores during the week.

For Larry Liou of Brooklyn and Steve Tischler of Long Island, the beautiful weather and large crowds meant they were able to sell most of their goods. Liou hawked silk shirts from China and Tischler sold socks and underwear.

“People are getting ready for the summer– they were here,” says Tischler.

This was one of the first weekends of warm weather. Liou took part in a street fair in March, but it was too cold, “I’ll take part in as many festivals as the weather permits,” Liou said.

Click above for a taste of spring.

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Click above for a behind the scenes look at a New York street fair.

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he festival was one of 47 street festivals planned this spring and summer by one of the three largest and busiest street festival production companies in New York City - Clearview Festival Productions Company.

The Union Square Community Coalition Festival is one of the many popular festivals organized by Clearview Festival Productions, sponsored by the Union Square Community Coalition. The coalition was established in 1980 to organize street fairs, community forums and other events to promote the rehabilitation of the Union Square Park.

And not just anyone can set up a stall. First, there is the cost. A 10×10 stall, which is the smallest size, costs $250 and exhibitors are required to display their New York State Tax Certificate of Authority number during the event. In addition, all food vendors have to be licensed by the Department of Health Office of Special Events. Vendors must also complete an I.D form to secure space at the festival.

Although the vendors see the festival as a way to make a living, more often than not New Yorkers see them as part of the culture of their city. Leone and Karina live in the city together. They bought drums at the fair, undaunted by the prospect of carrying their treasures home.

“I have been to other fairs in other countries,” Leone says. “New York is special because so many different ethnicities come together and its so much fun to buy all this odd stuff.”

The sounds of the street market filled the air. Vendors shouted out bargains to draw the crowd from their competitors. Customers and sellers bartered and bantered. The sounds of of feet strolling across the street and jumbled conversations about what to buy filled the streets and floated into nearby shops and apartments. Unsuspecting passers-by added to the volume of people at the festival and kept it alive until late into the afternoon.

The crowd gradually ebbed as some headed for nearby coffee shops and restaurants or to Union Square Park to rest their tired feet.

With sunset around the corner, the street festival came to close. Vendors brought their tents down and counted the day’s profit.

People turned up for the Street Fair at Union Square on April 18.

PHOTO by Yetnayet Aberra.

Hundreds of people turned up for the Union Square Street Fair on April 18.

PHOTO by Yetnayet Aberra.

Fair food for everyone: candy and caramel apples.

PHOTO by Yetnayet Aberra.

Cleaning up the mess as the fair winds down.

Link to upcoming spring and summer festivals in New York:

Mort & Ray Productions

Clearview Street Festival Production

Mardi Gras Productions Street Fair

The streets were littered with scraps of food: fries, bread, barbequed meat and sausages. Once again, vans honked and edged past the diminished crowds so their owners could load the unsold items. Cleaners hired by ClearView swept the streets and removed garbage. Several homeless scavenged for leftovers. Tourists scattered as residents watched their streets return to normal, the flash of color and noise put aside until the next festival.