Great Neck Plaza street festival to add greater community focus

Janelle Clausen

The annual Great Neck Plaza Street Festival and AutoFest will showcase the talents of local students in addition to cars and restaurants on Sunday, a move aimed at making the event more “community oriented.”

This year will feature two stages for musical and dance performances by Great Neck children at both ends of Bond Street, as well as a karaoke contest for 11-to-18-year-olds and more than 50 pieces of art on display and a variety of contests.

In addition, Great Neck South High School’s robotics team will showcase its creations.

“We wanted to create an event that would give the Great Neck community more reasons to come out and enjoy a festive day with family and friends,” said Ron Edelson, executive director of the Great Neck Plaza Business Improvement District. “Building our entertainment around the awesome talent of the youth in this community seemed to be the perfect way to re-energize the festival.”

Among the performers are younger family members of the Great Neck Chinese Association, Sephardic Heritage Alliance, To The Pointe! – Kata’s School of Dance, the Great Neck School of Dance, the Gold Coast Arts Center, Silverstein Hebrew Academy, the Great Neck Music Conservatory, Confidance Studio and A+ Martial Arts.

There will also be contests in areas like mini-golf, batting, football throwing, basketball foul shooting and a corn toss. The top three in each game will then compete in the championship round divided into two levels of competition.

Carnival rides, a petting zoo and pony rides will also return this year, but also be joined by a rock climbing wall and super slide.

This is all in addition to more than 60 antique, classic and high-end cars lining Middle Neck Road for Autofest like the 1908 Silver Ghost Rolls Royce and a 1968 Lamborghini Miura P400, which BID Vice President Jay Corn said “dethroned Ferrari as the world’s fastest car.”

“This is the holy grail of exotic cars,” Corn said.

The festivities are scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. in Great Neck Plaza. The rain date is Oct. 28.

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