Fair Haven Day Keeps Growing

More music. More vendors. More sunshine. 

Grand Avenue in front of Fair Haven School closed on Saturday to accommodate a bigger and more boisterous Fair Haven Day, as the neighborhood celebration — part of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas and a product of a broad, neighborhood-wide coalition — marked its second year post-pandemic shutdown and hearkened back to Fair Haven festivals of a generation ago.

“It’s about vision and planning,” said Shelley Quiala, A&I’s executive director. ​“The community leaders in Fair Haven had a vision” and ​“we were happy to walk alongside them, and that’s why it is what it is.” 

That vision started with Ward 14 alder Sarah Miller and a host of community members, who brought several related ideas from the present and the past together.

“Twenty-plus years ago, there was Fair Haven Day, where people would walk from downtown to Quinnipiac River Park,” Miller said. Fellow Fair Haven alder and activist Frank Redente, Jr. remembered biking in that parade as a kid. It had been organized by the Italian-American community in Fair Haven, but as that community moved out, ​“it kind of fizzled out.” A couple years ago, however, Mary Wade Home restarted the parade, and A&I did its neighborhood festival last year, in conjunction with the event. And ​“there was some energy around doing a violence prevention festival here,” Miller said. Last year they combined all those elements together to make Fair Haven Day. 

“Last year was well-attended,” Quiala said, which meant that this year, more people were interested in getting involved, as participants and as organizers. Last year and this year, the festival’s organizing committee did outreach through community agencies, schools, and Fair Haven’s management team. ​“People were waiting for it this year,” Miller said. ​“We had people on the list who wanted to come back. So it grew organically — and I think it’ll be more next year.”

The committee, Miller said, is made up of about 15 people from different organizations, including Junta for Progressive Action and Mary Wade, as well as alders and community leaders. She also thanked Joe Rodriguez and Puerto Ricans United as well as Erick Gonzalez and the Grand Avenue Special Services District for all their help with this year’s fest.

Planning for this year’s festival began as soon as last year’s was over, with monthly meetings starting last September until January, when they began meeting every other week. Those meetings were overseen by Junta and its project manager, Kiana Cintron, who also works as a youth leader and program assistant and attends UCONN, where she is studying biology.

Organizing ​“has been really busy,” Cintron said. ​“I really couldn’t have done it without the full committee. They have been my backbone in all of this.”

The organizers looked at what had worked and thought about ​“how to make it even more welcoming,” Quiala said, from the parade route to the location of the vendors. This year, the organizers brought the parade straight down Grand Avenue. In expanding the post-parade festivities, they divided and conquered. Junta, through Cintron, managed the overall project. 

Cintron learned how to ​“cater my language to everyone,” she said. ​“There were so many different types of people,” and ​“not everyone’s going to think like you.” She learned to bring people in and reach agreement. Mary Wade organized the parade. Redente organized activities. Joe and Dave Greco (of Arte, Inc.) managed the stage performances. Miller did fundraising.

“We just joined forces,” Miller said. From last year’s festival, they learned that ​“we really had to close the street” to accommodate the celebration.

Bolstered by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, A&I was able to direct more money than last year to all of its neighborhood festivals. But ​“if you give dollars without vision, it doesn’t go anywhere,” Quiala said. Fair Haven Day’s organizers didn’t have that problem. A&I’s support meant that Junta for Progressive Action could be brought on as an organizing partner.

“We’re guests here,” Quiala said of A&I’s part in it. ​“When I come here, I pay honor and respect to the folks that call this home. They have the vision, and I say ​‘what can we do to be of service?’ ”

This year’s festival ​“is hitting all the things the community is interested in having here,” Quiala said — which included booths for health care services, summer programs for kids, and hiring initiatives as well as food and entertainment. ​“The mashup of all of that speaks to the wholeness of life in a community.”

A walk around the festival made clear what Quiala meant. The driving rhythms of bomba galloped from the stage in front of the school, where some people danced and others had set up lounge chairs to enjoy all the musical acts. On the closed section of Grand Avenue, a long line of vendors saw a steady stream of visitors.

Long lines appeared for the food trucks parked near the school.

In the parking lot, numerous activities for kids were set up, including from Arte, Inc., that were crowded all afternoon.

Meanwhile, the booths set up for numerous nonprofits and service providers — from New Haven Reads and Long Wharf Theatre to IRIS and Elm City Compass — also saw steady visitors. 

Thinking ahead to next year, Miller said, ​“we have a little more space on the street, so we could do more. … But this model, people like. They like the parade down Grand Avenue and they like closing the street. We’ll figure out how to keep growing it and expanding.” 

“It’s great to have everybody just come and relax and be together,” she said.