Fair Haven Shines At Daylong Fest

Fair Haven overflowed with neighborly good cheer, tradition, and art as hundreds of city celebrants turned out for a costume-filled parade and a long joyous afternoon of Tlaxcalan and other Latino music and dance, free tacos and falafels, and plenty of family-oriented activities on Grand Avenue.

That was the scene Saturday for a daylong neighborhood celebration that kicked off with the 14th annual Mary Wade Home-sponsored parade. 

For the very first time, that parade combined this year with the Arts & Ideas pop-up cultural events in an auspicious revival of the 1980s-era Fair Haven Day.

The result for the morning’s parade was more than 600 people, including 24 organizations, 14 area schools, high school marching bands, middle school flag troupes, ballooned-up ducks, cheerful roosters, T‑rexes, angels, and a Batman or two, and local dignitaries.

They promenaded around the Mary Wade complex on Clifton at Grafton Street waving and cheering on the sun-hat wearing elders who were sitting, with family and caregivers nearby, in a long line of folding chairs by the sidewalks fronting Mary Wade.

While the English may have crowned their king and queen at roughly the same time on Saturday morning, we had our own local royalty at the front of the affair, including Miriam Magales, Miss Puerto Rico of Greater New Haven, and Sherry Lynn Fields, who was dressed as the 19^th Century eponymous Mary Wade Herself and the de facto Queen of the Fair Haven Day Parade.

The procession wound down Atwater to arrive at the Fair Haven School on Grand Avenue for hours more of Arts & Ideas and Fair Haven Day festivities. 

They ranged from art for kids to capoeira lessons and demonstrations of medieval fencing to Romeo and Juliet presented by Ice the Beef and Elm Shakespeare, family action that stretched on into the beautiful early May evening. 

By ​“bringing back a historic tradition,” said Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller, one the chief coordinators of the Fair Haven Day event, and combining that with Arts and Ideas and the parade, ​“we want to highlight what’s beautiful and positive in the neighborhood. 

“You don’t have to spend too much time in Fair Haven before people begin telling you their memories of Fair Haven Day,” she added. 

One of those is Frank Redente, Jr., another of the event’s chief organizers and a youth engagement worker with the Board of Education and Project Longevity operating out of the Fair Haven School. 

“We used to march in our Dom Aitro Little League uniforms,” he recalled. ​“Also I remember when I was a kid in the late 1970s, my friend David Colella and I would ride our battery-powered CHiPS cycles [at Fair Haven Day] and ride till the batteries ran out. Then we would go and hang out on the green [grass] near tents set up by the water [of the Quinnipiac River]. It was a big part of our lives, memories we cherish.” 

Redente also announced at Thursday night’s most recent Fair Haven Community Management Team meeting that he intends to challenge Ernie Santiago for the Ward 15 aldermanic seat. 

A parade, with all those happy cheering voters, or potential voters, always attracts political hopefuls as well as those already in office. Mayoral candidate Shafiq Abdusubbar was among those marching and passing out campaign lit, and State Rep. Al Paolillo marched and waved while sparring with Redente about who remembered more accurately how close to the river the Fair Haven Day tents were deployed way back when. 

The day was not just for memories, but for elders and kids and families and Mary Wade staffers like Carmen Rosemond who this year happened to be a rooster. 

“I’ve been a clown” before, she crowed, ​“and a basketball player.” But no matter the costume, every day at Mary Wade, she said, as the parade paused near Grand Avenue, ​“we pride ourselves that everyone is loved. Mary Wade is bigger than a business. It’s a family.” 

As the marching groups lowered their drums and coronets upon arriving at the Fair Haven School, a half dozen food trucks and three dozen tables set up in the parking area between the school and Fair Haven Branch Library came to life. 

The Tlaxcala Taqueria truck, Giulio’s Pizza, and Mamoun’s suddenly had long lines formed in front of them. This reporter didn’t quite know why until FHCMT Executive Board member Abbie Storch pointed out that through a last-minute anonymous grant to the day’s event, much of the food was being offered free. All you had to do was give your order and then wait until your number was called. 

Before they took a break to have a falafel, Chris Vallie and Robert Richnavsky of the Winsted-based Laurel City Historical Fencing were showing how people performed the martial arts in 16^th century Germany. 

And nearby Evian Santana, whose uncle Danny Diaz is one of the founders of the Fair Haven Hispanic cultural organization Arte, was busy helping kids write out their wishes, poems, and dreams on paper bags. Information as to what was to become of the paper bags was not available by press time. 

Mary Wade too had found her way to the fencing and the falafels, and later in the day, she could plan to take in music by Thabisa, fandango performances by the Semilla Collective, pieces performed by Music Haven, Mariachi Son De Mi Tierra, Romeo and Juliet, a skateboard clinic and bike rodeo over on nearby Exchange Street, and a host of other activities.

“I feel good,” she said. ​“Like a queen.” 

The next community-wide events for this increasingly engaged community include The New Haven Family Stroll and Festival on Saturday, May 20; and the Quinnipiac Riverfest on Saturday June 30. For more information or to become involved, best route is via the Fair Haven Community Management Team site here.