New Bed-Stuy Open Street To Debut With Comic Fair, Family Circus

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — The circus is coming to town in Bed-Stuy.

A new Open Street coming to Lewis Avenue on Saturday will kick off its season with a performance from the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, who will stop by in a mobile parade float-turned venue started during the coronavirus pandemic.

The circus performance will be one of several events on the Open Street, which extends between Fulton Street and Jefferson Avenue and will run most Saturdays through June and July.

There will also be a book and comic fair at Macon Library and an Open Street market featuring the Lewis Avenue businesses.

Organizers of the Open Street, Bridge Street Development Corporation, set it up this year in the hopes of increasing foot traffic to local businesses, as a similar set up did on the Tompkins Avenue Open Street.

Not everyone was as pleased with the idea. Some neighbors have contended the program will exacerbate rodent, trash and traffic problems in the surrounding blocks.

Lewis Avenue joins five other Open Streets in the neighborhood.

Here's what to know:

WHERE: Lewis Avenue between Jefferson and Fulton

WHEN: 12 to 6 p.m. June 4

EVENTS LINE-UP:

• Bindlestiff Family Cirkus Flatbed Folllies, between Fulton and Decatur streets; 12 to 6 p.m.
• Lewis Avenue Open Street Market, 12 to 6 p.m.
• Macon Library book and comic fair, 361 Lewis Ave.; 12 to 4 p.m.