Plans Move Ahead to Hold Annual Mineola Fair Downtown

Plans are moving forward to hold the 20th Annual Mineola Street Fair in the heart of the downtown area.

For the past 19 years the fair was held in Memorial Park, but at the February meeting of the , leaders revealed that they were .

“This year we decided to change it up a little bit,” owner Steve Ford said Tuesday night during the chamber’s March meeting. “We decided to convert it to a street fair.”

Other neighboring villages including Garden City and New Hyde Park hold their annual street fairs in downtown areas or in the case of New Hyde Park, on Jericho Turnpike itself.

“We’re looking to expand upon this and add a couple blocks of Mineola Boulevard,” Ford said.

The chamber would hold the fair in downtown Mineola on a two block section of Mineola Boulevard from Main Street to Second Street. The area of the fair would cover Mineola Boulevard from Second Street to Harrison Avenue, Main Street from First Street to the rail road tracks and Second Street from Mineola Boulevard to Second Avenue. The date of the street fair would be Sunday, May 22.

“One of the most important points about moving the fair to a Sunday is that many of our businesses are open for operation on Saturday, which precludes (them) from being involved,” Chamber President Ray Sikorski said. “By us moving it to a Sunday, gives us the opportunity to get more people to participate in the fair.”

This includes opening the fair more to children and families who might not know about all of the businesses in Mineola.

“I think many times most of us don’t realize that there is a business in town where you can get things that you normally would go to a large packaged goods store or you would go to a mall for and unfortunately we’ve all seen the implications of that,” Sikorski said.

Mineola previously held a fall street fair for two years on Main Street and Second Street and Ford reported that he had received a “favorable” response from the businesses in the area.

“They’re all excited that we’re holding an event right at their front doors and bringing people to them,” he said.

Businesses and residents would be receiving more information in the coming weeks, and a presentation is reportedly set to be made Wednesday night before the village board, who must approve the application for the fair to take place.

Update: During Wednesday night’s brief meeting of the village board, Mayor Lawrence Werther emphasized that the plans “have not been solidified, no plans have been approved by this board, nor will they be until a public meeting is had on this subject.” No presentation was made during the meeting about the street fair or any proposed changes.