Aug. 31, 2014 By Michael Florio
A lot more flavor is coming to this year’s 30th Avenue Labor Day Festival.
CPI Group, a New York-based event management firm that has been putting together the festival for the past 15 years, will be introducing a special food component that will feature the cuisine of several Astoria eateries.
Tomorrow, Sept. 1, the festival will run along 30th Ave from 29th to 41st Street. However, for three blocks—from 35th Street to 38th Street—CPI will be hosting “Astoria Eats,” where local restaurants will be setting up stands and serving their signature dishes.
Restaurants such as Marketa, Crave, Trakia, The Bao Shoppe and The Shady Lady will all be setting up stands
Robert Ashe, a director at CPI Group, said he introduced “Astoria Eats” to add a whole new dimension to the event.
“The street fairs in the area have become a little repetitive all offering the same merchandise and food items,” Ashe said. “We want to reinvent the street fair into a community event.”
“There will be no commercial buy and sell merchandise such as sun glasses and cell phone accessories that you see at most typical street fairs,” said Ashe.
Astoria Eats is being marketed as “where commerce meets cuisine.”
Ashe expects a large turnout at the street fair this year, anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 people.
The festival starts 12pm and ends at 6pm.
2 Comments
I went too with the lure of beer gardens, street cafes, and entertainment. . .turns out it was the same tired old street fair as always. Maybe folks backed out with the threat of thunderstorms?
The street fair had both cell phone accessories and sunglass shops. Quite a few of them. And no live music or beer garden as of 2pm.