Melrose Plans Community Dance Event Saturday

MELROSE, MA — Melrose community members will gather on Saturday for the city’s first ever Melrose Dance for Community event.

The Melrose Mayor’s Office announced the event on Tuesday. The dance party will run from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday in front of City Hall on Essex Street.

The event will feature attractions ranging from food for purchase, to local artists, to free Salsa and community dance lessons. Melrose resident and Dance for Humanity founder Jen Earls will lead the lessons, as noted in the city’s announcement.

Part of Essex Street between 562 Essex St. and 25 Essex St. will be closed from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday. On-street parking will be banned in the area from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The event is organized by the Melrose Human Rights Commission and the Melrose Mayor’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Task Force. It aims to promote what the mayor’s office described this week as “community re-unification.”

“Over the last few years, the global pandemic has taken so much of our attention,” Brodeur said in his team’s statement. “It’s time we shift our focus from the pandemic back to each other on a local level.”

“Strengthening our community is key to rebuilding Melrose,” Brodeur continued. “To do that, we can start by bringing everyone together for an afternoon of fun.”

Planned event vendors include, among others:

• Dance for Humanity
• Michelle La Poetica Richardson
• DJ FRIXX (DJ Fritz)
• Clovers Kitchen
• C.R.E.A.M.
• Mud Dove Pottery
• Elysian Design
• Rahimgrayart
• Yara Chocolate

Anyone with questions can contact the Mayor’s Office by email at mayorsoffice@cityofmelrose.org or by phone at 781-979-4440.

Saturday festivities will add onto a day that already includes Melrose's planned City-Wide Yard Sale. Returning for the first time since 2019, the event will see dozens of individual yard sales across Melrose between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.