Spring Festival Brings Food, Fun To Astoria This Weekend

ASTORIA, QUEENS -- Spring has finally sprung and Astoria is going to celebrate, rain or shine.

More than 5,000 people are expected to crowd 31st Street on Sunday for the 40th annual Astoria Spring Festival, where there will be amusement park rides, multiethnic food and lots of piña coladas.

"It's fun for the kids and really just a fun day for the whole family," said Mike Hyatt, event producer for the fair's organizer, Meteor Festivals. "Right now, we're just basically praying for good weather."

Meteor Festivals organizes the festival for Astoria Restoration Association, which puts it on each year. The nonprofit aimed at enhancing the neighborhood will shut down 31st Street between Ditmars Boulevard and 21st Avenue for this year's festival from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on May 20.

During that time, a handful of amusement park rides will be stationed between various food and street fair vendors along the road.

Participants can expect everything from Caribbean to Mexican to Italian food vendors at the festival, Hyatt said. There will even be one vendor just for piña coladas.

The Astoria Restoration Association started the festival as semi-annual event - the nonprofit also hosts one in the fall - 40 years ago to help boost Astoria's economy, Hyatt said.

"The event was started when Astoria was not as vibrant a neighborhood as it is now," he said. Now 40 years later, Astoria is a strong, vibrant, colorful community and the fair just continues to live on."

(Lead photo courtesy of Meteor Festivals)