Mineola Street Fair set for Sunday

Brandon Duffy
The Mineola Street Fair is set to take place this Sunday, Oct. 10 after a delay due to COVID-19. (Photo by Noah Manskar)

The Village of Mineola’s Chamber of Commerce will host its annual Street Fair on Sunday after having to cancel last year’s. 

It will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Jericho Turnpike between Mineola Boulevard and Willis Avenue.  Local service organizations, businesses and first responders will participate. 

Last year’s event was canceled due to COVID-19, a reversal of the chamber’s initial plan in the summer of 2020 to go forward with the street fair. 

This year will be the first fair under the leadership of Louis Panacciulli, who is the music director for the Nassau Pops Symphony Orchestra. Panacciulli, who was installed as chamber president in June, took over from Joel Harris, who organized the previous three fairs. 

“The street fair planning is a team effort,” Panacciulli said in an interview Tuesday. “I don’t think any one person in particular takes the lead. Everybody seems to have a certain expertise at the various aspects of putting this together.”

For music and entertainment, the chamber president said there will be three  options. On one stage, located in the back of the old firehouse currently being reconstructed, a showmobile will host local dance troupes, singers and martial-arts demonstrations after the opening ceremony involving town and village officials. 

On the other side, in front of Bethpage Federal Credit Union, another stage will be constructed and will host five rock ‘n’ roll bands. Last, the Irish American Society will host music at its hall, Panacciulli said.

 “It’s always a great time,” he said. 

The event started over 200 years ago but adopted the name “Mineola Fair” in 1899, according to Panacciulli. It was held in Mineola Memorial Park from 1991 until 2013, when it moved to Main Street. It then settled in its current Jericho Turnpike location in 2016.

The decision to move the fair to Jericho Turnpike was made because the chamber’s goal is to help local businesses and it felt that the park was too small to help them,  said Panacciulli.

“A larger footprint, the ability to accommodate more vendors and certainly members of the chamber to participate were attractive to us,” he said.

As of last week, Panacciulli said, more than 60 vendors were expected to participate in the fair, but that number rises closer to the event. 

Also included in the fair are food trucks and the Mineola Junior Fire Department’s celebrity dunk tank. Different village officials will risk getting splashed among an onslaught of baseballs trying to hit the target. 

The fair will be produced by Nassau County Craft Shows. Anyone wanting more information can visit www.mineolachamber.com.

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