Paul Bass Photo
Erick Gonzalez, Frank Redente, Kiara Cintron, and Ivette Oliveras at WNHH FM.
First an annual neighborhood May parade came back. Then the parade grew, and grew.
Now Fair Haven is going all out not just with hundreds of marchers, but a day and evening-long celebration of the neighborhood’s culture and cuisine and commerce.
That’s all happening this Saturday. The annual Mary Wade Parade will step off from Chatham Square Park at 11 a.m. (People will begin gathering at 10:30.) It will end at Fair Haven School — where, from noon to 6:30, an Arts & Ideas neighborhood festival will feature live music, booths staffed by Grand Avenue merchants and Fair Haven social service agencies, food trucks, and sports ranging from fencing to basketball to baseball and football. Then Ice the Beef will stage a performance of Romeo and Juliet inside the school’s auditorium at 6:30. Find out more details about the day’s events here.
“There’s going to be lots of food, entertainment. You get to know Fair Haven residents, cultures. So much diversity,” promised one of the event’s organizers, Kiana Cintron, a graduating senior at Metropolitan High School who works at Junta for Progressive Action, one of the neighborhood’s anchor institutions.
“It’s going to be a beautiful day!” said fellow organizer and Fair Haven native Frank Redente, a violence-intervention worker at Fair Haven School.
“And Fair Haven library will be passing out free bus passes,” noted Erick Gonzalez of the Grand Avenue Special Services District.
The three joined fellow festival organizer Ivette Oliveras of Mary Wade Home in previewing the event, charting its history, and more generally discussing growing up and living in Fair Haven, during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
Click on the video to watch the full discussion. Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline.”
When I first moved to New Haven around 1974, Fair Haven used to have a festival of sorts named "Fair Haven Is for Sharpies." If my memory still holds true, because it's very possible I could be off on the exact years of the festival.