The closing night of the annual Portuguese-American Festival in Wilson Park on Sunday was a combination celebration of Portuguese culture and carnival.
As the end of the three-day festival on Westbury Avenue in Mineola drew near, adults and children could be seen running about, laughing and stuffing their faces with cotton candy as they went from ride to ride or took a chance at winning a prize at one of the many midway games.
Residents have been gathering at the Portuguese Fest for years, and a crowd of more than 200 people were present Sunday night.
“This is a great carnival,” Mineola resident Nicole Castillo said. “We come here every year.”
Castillo was accompanied by her two children Savannah and Louis, who were waiting to get on one of the rides as they ate cotton candy.
But the event was about more than rides, candy, and games.
Members of dance group Juventude de Portugal of the Mineola Portuguese center, performed traditional folkorocio dance from Portugal.
Adorned in their native costumes from the northern region of Minho Portugal, festival members gathered around the dance group, watching them perform a dance they have done for decades.
Among the Juventude de Portugal dancers on Sunday was founder and head dance teacher Manny Carlos, who founded the group in 1985.
Some of the melodies performed included “Canaverde” which have upbeat tempos, along with “Vera”, which means “turn,” as the performers twirled and turned in fluid sequences.
Tony Da Silva, president of the dance group, said there are no age limits for those members of the community who participate.
“Juventude basically translates into ‘youth of’ in English,” Da Silva said. “We practice on Mondays and Wednesdays and have about 80 members total in the group. The group age ranges from five to 60.”
Some of the carnival rides included the Gravitron, a Ferris wheel, and even a giant slide for the little children to play on.
Among the selection of foods available, residents were able to munch on hot dogs, snow cones, popcorn, candy apples and even chocolate covered cheesecake, in addition to the cotton candy.
