Upper East Side's Third Ave Fair Returns This Weekend: What To Know

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — One of Manhattan's longest running and largest street fairs is coming back to the Upper East Side on Saturday.

The Third Avenue Festival, officially called the Community Benefit Festival by the event's organizer, the Manhattan Camber of Commerce, will host 20 blocks of fun, food and small business vendors on the wide avenue.

The more than mile-long fair stretches from East 66th Street to East 86th Street and offers a day of fun for thousands of neighbors and visitors who can spend the day strolling along the avenue and checking out the hundreds of vendors.

Starting at 10 a.m., the fair will be open to all until 6 p.m. (rain or shine).

The group also calls the annual street fair the "Shop Small Biz" street fair, since many vendors are local small businesses.

Proceeds from the fair are donated by the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce to nonprofits in the community, the group says, with over $3.5 million given to Upper East Side organizations to date.

The group has managed the Third Avenue Fair — and the similar 20-block-long Second Avenue that happens at the start of the summer — since 1993, their website states.

And of course, Third Avenue between East 66th and 86th streets will be shut to traffic during time surrounding the festival, though the closures are specifically "at the discretion of NYPD," according to police officials..