Valley Stream street festival in the works

Rockaway Avenue is known for its great restaurants, vibrant shops and traffic lights as far as the eye can see. But in the near future, some people are hoping that the avenue will be known for something else: an annual street festival.

On Sept. 29, Rockaway Avenue will be shut down from Sunrise Highway to Merrick Road for the first-ever Valley Stream Community Fest. Several business owners and residents, who meet every two weeks, are organizing the event.

The idea was generated during a conversation last fall between Jamie Giordano, a Gibson resident and vice president of Envision Valley Stream, and David Sabatino, owner of Sip This on Rockaway Avenue and president of Envision Valley Stream. Giordano said he thought it would be a good idea to bring all of the unique businesses and cultures on Rockaway Avenue — and around the village — together for a day of fun.

“It’s such a colorful community, with so much to offer,” Giordano said. “We just wanted to show how we differ from other communities and why that’s a good thing.”

Once the idea was discussed in more detail, members of the Street Festival Committee met with village officials to see if it could become a reality. Sabatino said that Mayor Ed Fare and Deputy Mayor John Tufarelli thought it was a great idea, and the village board approved it at a later meeting.

Sabatino and Giordano began contacting other businesses and religious organizations in the area to see if they were interested in participating in the festival. Giordano said that the response has been positive from every business owner he has talked to.

The festival will feature vendors set up along Rockaway Avenue from businesses across Valley Stream, live music and a wide selection of food. There will also be a host of children’s activities, coordinated by Kim Thomas, founder of Valley Stream Mom.

“I’d just like to see people out and enjoying Rockaway Avenue,” Giordano said. “I’d like to see people enjoying what Valley Stream has to offer and to see people be surprised by it.”

Both Sabatino and Giordano said they enjoy the diversity of restaurants and shops on the avenue and would like other people to do the same. “I think there are a lot of new restaurants that are struggling because nobody really knows about them,” Sabatino said. “So for them, this is an opportunity to get people in the door.”

Chamber of Commerce President Debbi Gyulay, a member of the Street Festival Committee, said she is hoping for a big turnout in September. Gyulay said she joined the committee because she wants “to bring attention to the business community and the community as a whole.”

Giordano said that he wanted to help make something good happen in the village because in recent years there have been a lot of negative stories about crime in the area. “It’s about getting people together from throughout Valley Stream to experience Valley Stream,” he said, “and I think that as long as people are having a good time, we’ve been successful.”

According to Vinny Ang, the research assistant to the village Board of Trustees, Valley Stream has hosted street festivals on Rockaway Avenue in the past. In the 1980s, the now-defunct Rockaway Avenue Merchants Association staged a festival, and in the 1990s, the Chamber of Commerce did the same.

The Valley Stream Community Fest will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sept. 29. The festival’s committee is hosting two informational meetings at Sip This, at 64 Rockaway Ave., that will be open to all residents and businesses. The first was scheduled for Thursday at 8 p.m., and the second is on Saturday at 9 a.m. For more information, go to www.vscommunityfest.com.