Vintage never goes out of fashion!
The 48th annual Atlantic Antic Festival is coming back on Oct. 1 with over 500 booths with local vendors and snacks and 12 live music stages to Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, and Downtown Brooklyn.
Billed as Brooklyn’s “oldest and largest” street festival, the Antic is planned to be a celebration with face painting, non-stop music and circus performers. The festival is put on each year by the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corp., and was started as a way to “promote Brooklyn and ‘welcome’ visitors to dine, shop and enjoy the historic Atlantic Avenue areas,” per the AALDC’s website.
“We’re very proud of the Antic, it’s a very multicultural, multiethnic street fair that represents so many people in Brooklyn — so many shapes, so many sizes, so many colors,” acting AALDC executive director Howard Kolins told Brooklyn Paper last year. “Food of all types and it also has participation from many of the merchants who are here [year-round.]
Middle Eastern musicians and belly dancers will perform at the festival’s main stage at Clinton Street —a tradition kept since the festival’s first iteration nearly half a century ago.
Also returning is the Bindlestiff Family Circus, which organizers said was a “big hit” with kids and adults alike at the 2021 festival, plus the TF Cornerstone Community Stage between Third and Fourth avenues – where a diverse array of artists will put on a performance featuring R&B musicians, kid’s dance performances, rock bands, and drummers.
On Atlantic Avenue, a number of local schools will set up shop to introduce themselves to parents and potential students — and attendees should keep an eye out for the Brooklyn Nets basketball court, the Homage Skateboard Academy, and the World Explorers Group.
For the first time, parenting website Mommy Poppins and Brooklyn Bridge Parents will present the “Fun Zone” between Hicks and Henry streets — organizers have arranged for free family-fun entertainment including a mini squash court, a cardboard maze, free goodies, arts & crafts and interactive games. At the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Nevins Street, “Kids Rock For Kids,” featuring incredible local teen bands, will rock out all afternoon.
Many of the avenue’s restaurants and shops specializing in fashion, crafts and home objects will participate too — offering quality crafts, fine arts, fashion, jewelry and other relics from around the world. Attendees are welcome to stroll the avenue to shop and sample locally-made lemonade, barbecue, crepes, fried ice cream, and more.
The festival regularly draws hundreds of thousands of attendees — though least year’s event was dampened by rain, Brooklynites still flocked to the street to enjoy the day.
