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In the Dorian Pizza and Deli parking lot on Westcott Street, Brazilian band Giovanna Maropo Experience thanked the kids who danced and waved their ribboned wands during their performance at the WAER Center Stage. An adult in a cowboy hat and a couple joined the three kids as people walked or rode a unicycle nearby, checking out the hundreds of vendors to the sounds of bossa nova.

“It’s really a coming together and truly shows the uniqueness of our neighborhood – the togetherness about it, the openness about it,” said Sharon Sherman, the chair of the Westcott Street Cultural Fair.

This Sunday was the 31st edition of the local fair. The event is a celebration in the Westcott neighborhood, hosting different local vendors directly on the street and artists and dancers on three different stages.

The Westcott Fair has gone through different evolutions through three decades, and they always do something new, Sherman said. The fair extended further down Westcott Street to make room for more vendors this year.

The new Kid’s Corner in the library parking lot heard the sounds of a performance of “Papagayo” by the Syracuse Opera with singers in parrot and wolf costumes. For the next act, passersby could only hear the giggles of kids who tried to break the next act’s — a mime’s — character.

Walking down Westcott and the side streets, there were vendors of jewelry, leather bags, honey, crochet tops, vintage items and more. Some vendors at the fair are former Syracuse University or SUNY-ESF students who stayed local to pursue their entrepreneurial interests.

Former ESF student Katie Robideau, who owns the jewelry business KJpressed, grows plants in her yard and then uses screens to press them into rings, necklaces and earrings. She’s worked at the Baltimore Woods Nature Center for the last four years while also working on her business.

“I have a special connection to the Westcott Street Cultural Fair,” Robideau said. “This is my second year, and I just love the environment. I love how close and tight-knit the community is here.”

The fair is welcoming to more unconventional art, SU alum Rhyse Curtis said. They run WonderWyrmStudio and appreciate the opportunity to sell their leather pieces at the fair.

“A lot of my designs aren’t really traditional, and so I find a lot of people here who attend this fair looking for things like that,” Curtis said. “The people here like the kind of eclectic, weird stuff.”

Others have been coming to the fair since they were kids. A mother-daughter duo, Ellen and Dia Haffar, run Smokepail Studio, which creates pottery pieces with designs like monarch butterflies. They decided to make pottery together a year ago.

The Smokepail Studio duo wanted to sell their work at a place that had already been important to them. Dia has been coming to the fair since she was little and fondly remembers the puppets, which weren’t at the fair this year. They both love the “colorful and funky” vibe that fits in with the work they do and have loved watching the fair grow.

“I think that Westcott Street itself has developed in a great way,” Ellen Haffar said. “There’s always been like Boom Babies. There’s been the Westcott Theater and stuff. The new restaurants that have moved in. I think that it’s a great neighborhood area.”

Miranda Hine has been a Westcott resident for 40 years and has watched the transformations of the neighborhood firsthand. However, a lot of SU students don’t know much about the area, she said.

Hine works at the New School, a one-room school in Syracuse, and spent the day collecting donations for the school. She worked as a face painter and painted an array of cats, Spider-Men or a half-zombie, half-skeleton combination. She even ran into her students from 20 to 30 years ago.

“It’s very cool to see my neighborhood, and overwhelming sometimes because you know too many people,” Hine said.

Organizations used the event as an opportunity to raise awareness for their causes too. Operation Northern Comfort does home repairs like building ramps or painting for those who can’t do it themselves. Roots Uplifted sold their jewelry and keychains made by students who hope to go to Africa to learn more about the diaspora.

“We come here to make you aware that don’t know anything about us so we’re helping them or they’re helping us, so we’re helping each other,” said Tammy Rivera, who works for Operation Northern Comfort.

The community is strong and feels like its own small village within Syracuse, said Roger Shafer, the husband of an employee of the Jail Ministry of Onondaga County. It’s a way to get the whole community together and showcase the unique businesses in the area, Sherman said.

This is the last year the Center Stage will be in Dorian’s parking lot. The pizza restaurant is being replaced by a development, Westcott Remix, a mixed-use building.

The funkiness of the fair is like the Greenwich Village of Syracuse, which anyone is welcome to enjoy, Sherman said. She added that it showcases the diversity of the neighborhood, allowing neighbors, new and old to come together. Olivia Coloton has been coming to the fair with her dad, who’s been a vendor for years, and this year she performed for the first time with the Moon Circus.

“It’s like the best time ever,” Coloton said. “I love the diversity. I love being on the bars. I love dancing and the music. I always tell people that this is the best festival that happens in Syracuse every year because you get a taste of literally everything.”

Published on October 2, 2023 at 12:10 am

Contact Rosina: rlboehm@syr.edu