The South West Brooklyn Fall Festival is the Columbia Waterfront District’s annual street fair. It focuses around Union and Columbia Streets, and is scheduled for Saturday September 15, from noon to 5 pm.
“I have noticed growth the last couple of years,” Ben Fuller Googgins, programming and planning director of the fair’s sponsor, the Carroll Garden’s Association (CGA). “I would say between 60 and 75 participants and that includes musicians, community organizations and vendors. I don’t know the exact breakdown among all of those, but I would say it is in that range.”
The event is the one major community event of the year in the part of the neighborhood that it is in. A major reason that they do this festival is that it is the one time that they mix businesses, musicians, food vendors and community groups.
“Also, making space for local businesses that do not have a storefront or are starting up and wanting to expand,” Fuller Googins said. “This is not a fundraiser for us, we make it as accessible as possible for groups to participate. All the registration fees are just used to cover the costs. The city takes a fee also.”
In Fuller Googins’s few years at CGA he has noticed that organizations are now reaching out to them wanting to participate, which he is pleased to see. They have been able to grow this festival by going door to door to various businesses to get the word out, and for the businesses who don’t have a storefront the organizers have felt that social media has helped connect with those people.
There are a few local food businesses who do not have storefronts that will be at the festival. One of them is Monsoon Sweets, owned by Roopa Kalyanaraman Marcello, who lives in Carroll Gardens and heard about the event because she lives three blocks away. Monsoon Sweets is a custom cake and desert studio that specializes in flavors of South Asia.
Another local business who will be at the festival is Jest Green, which is run by Vander Carter. Jest Green is NYC’s first eco modern street vendor and his signature products include seasonal, locally sourced greens, homemade thirst-quenching juices, tasty snacks and globally inspired flavors.
There are also many local traditional restaurants that will have booths with food at the festival for attendees to enjoy. Fuller Googins thinks it is nice that restaurants with storefronts will participate.
“We will have Mazzat, an Egyptian place on the corner of Sackett and Columbia Street,” Fuller Googins said. “We will have Calexico, they have a storefront on Union. Also, the House of Pizza and Calzone (132 Union Street) (among others).”
The organizers found that musical groups have reached out to them wanting to perform, and this year one such musician, who is from Red Hook, goes by the name Happs. His real name is Tyquan Carter and he performs hip hop music.
“It’s good to have actual musicians from the neighborhood,” Fuller Googins added. “I am excited, slowly but surely Red Hook is being represented. Pioneer Works has come the last few years.”
CGA really wants to give local businesses who operate out of their home and are just starting out a space to connect with others in the neighborhood. Whereas some festivals will reflect businesses of many different areas, CGA really wants this festival to reflect the communities they are a part of in terms of the artists, musicians and food vendors that are represented.
