Sam Gurwitt Photo
At Hamden Fest, even Thor has to wait in line for Mamoun’s.
Well, he has to wait while other people get Mamoun’s. “I can’t eat. On a hero diet,” he said. Eating in costume is not allowed.
Thor, or Michael Lutz under the costume, revealed the diet as he stood in line for the Mamoun’s Falafel truck at the first annual Hamden Fest on Saturday at Town Center Park. He had stepped out of the tent where members of the Hamden Regional Chamber of Commerce were advertising their services. He and other characters were there representing Orange-based Princess Diana Events, which sends fictional characters to parties.
Hamden Fest grew out of the chamber’s annual business expo. The expo has been happening for 15 years, said Chamber of Commerce President Nancy Dudchik. This year, she and the Town of Hamden decided to partner to create Hamden Fest, bringing together the business expo with other vendors, performances, food, and a book sale over at the nearby Miller Memorial Library.
“It brings together arts, culture, and community in one big day that kicks off the season,” said Dudchik.
Outside the large white tent that housed the Hamden Regional Chamber of Commerce members was a stage and picnic tables. The Liz McNicholl band was one of the day’s performers. As is its custom, the band finished the set with “Old Shoes and Picture Postcards.”
Next to the picnic tables, the maze of tents began, where vendors hawked everything from hemp bracelets to politics.
Betsy Goldberg stood outside her tent trying to untie a knot on one of the hemp bracelets she was selling. She and Allan Brison run Sleeping Giant Hemp Company out of Hamden. They sell exclusively textiles. Too many people do CBD better than they could, she said.
A few tents away, Mark Polvari sat with his Wallingford-based Mr. P’s Creations. Everything, he said, is made of repurposed shipping palettes.
Like these, but a little bigger.
Tomas Sanchez, Daniel Sanders, Vinny Brandi, Matthew Cocco, and Kalvin and Jeffrey Martinez milled about in police uniforms. All teens between 13 and 21, they are members of the Hamden Police Explorers. Officer Angela Vey was in charge. Every week, they attend classes on challenges the police deal with: DUIs, domestic violence, motor vehicle stops, emotionally disturbed persons, and more. Sometimes, they help Vey out with events like Hamden Fest.
And if you thought you could go just one peaceful Saturday without remembering that Hamden politics are heating up, you were oh so wrong.
Democrat Lauren Garrett (with the Lauren for Hamden sticker), who is vying for the Democratic nomination for mayor, stood in one tent, right next to Jay Kaye (in the Hamden First shirt), who will try to become Hamden’s first Republican mayor in 20 years.
And, of course, the person they’re both trying to unseat was there as well.
Mayor Curt Leng did not have a campaign tent. He preferred to stay out of the tent maze, and sat at a picnic table with his wife Stephanie and his son Cooper.
He did, though, post on Facebook earlier in the day about why he didn’t have a table. “Our community events at Town Center Park,” he wrote, “have had a long standing tradition of avoiding this type of politicking from any political party, political group or political candidate in a formalized way.” He wrote that he posted his explanation because people were asking why he wouldn’t have a table.
But really, enough of the politics, because there was more salvaged wood to admire. Frank Conroy of Hamden-based 21 Tables had a whole display laid out. “Everything had a previous life,” he said. And not just the wood, like on this table.
The base is part of an old compressor tank from Queens. It weighed 1,000 pounds, and Conroy said he had to cut it into three pieces. He then took wooden casting palettes from Torrington Brass Castings, an old brass factory, and slotted them together to create the table top. The dark burn marks are from splashes of molten brass.
Rob Garvie (above, on the right, talking to Conroy) came by to admire.
If you were hungry, you only had to walk a few yards away from Conroy’s tables to the large semi-circle of food trucks.
Pam Hyslop (pictured above) of New Haven stood outside the Lobster Hut truck. She said she was eyeing the lobster rolls.
After picking up their fare, most people carried it up into the shade of the large trees lining the hill that slopes up to Dixwell Avenue.
That grassy hill wasn’t the only slope of the day.
Benjamin Morgan sat atop a much steeper one. This one, though, was made of plastic. He was supposed to slide down it, but he really didn’t want to. His mother Esther Serkin-Morgan stood at the bottom encouraging him, to no avail. Eventually the other kids stopped waiting and streamed past on either side.
So Serkin-Morgan decided she was never too old for the slide, and climbed up herself. She sat at the top with Benjamin for about 30 seconds.
Then she and Benjamin slid down together.
