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A wonderful day in the neighborhood: Westerly Block Party |
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Friday, 23 October 2009 |
First block party may be one of many more to come.
By MICHAEL SOUZA
WESTERLY – By all accounts, Saturday’s Downtown Westerly Block Party was a success. Despite unseasonably cold weather and the threat of rain, the skies remained clear as several thousand people participated in the fun.
From Broad to Canal streets, High Street was closed to traffic and downtown transformed into a pedestrian mall. Merchants from downtown Westerly filled the streets. Also included were some from Granite Street and some artisans as far away as Mystic, Conn.
Aside from the large variety of goods for sale, the festivities also included activities for the whole family. Five live bands played throughout the day-long event, and locally made food and drinks were also highlighted.
For the children there were games and face painting. Demonstrations included several forms on martial arts and hooping, and later in the day, a drumming circle. Promoted as “celebrating local culture” the block party did just that.
The idea was the brainchild of Stefanie Gabriele, owner of Anya Blu, a downtown clothing boutique.
“It had been something we had been thinking about. We started to really work on it about six weeks ago, then we just rolled with it,” she said on Saturday.
After approaching Carrie Baird, president of the Westerly – Pawcatuck Downtown Business Association (DBA), and putting in hours of hard work, the idea became a reality.
“Because of the timing, we chose to have it this weekend. It was the only weekend that there wasn’t something going on downtown,” Gabriele said.
“We needed to do this, not only to boost awareness of the shops downtown but also to boost morale.”
Over the last year, several commercial tenants in the downtown area have left, moving to locations off U.S. Route 1. The downtown area, like the Main Streets of other South County downtowns, finds itself battling commercial development off major highways.
In Westerly, the district is bordered by Railroad Avenue to the west, Broad Street to the east, and includes High and Canal streets.
And if the day was designed to re-introduce people to Westerly’s beautiful downtown, well, it did that very well.
“We wanted to do something to include everybody, and the theme of the party is to shop, eat and drink local. Also, listen to local music and support artisans,” she said.
So will it be an annual event? “Maybe. If it is we might move it to September,” she said.
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