The 39th annual Atlantic Antic packed Atlantic Avenue with vendors, performers, and party people on Sunday afternoon.
Belly dancers and musicians strutted and strummed their stuff and artists, craft brewers, and other vendors from around the city, more than 400 in total, showed their wares. Atlantic Avenue establishments like the House of the Lord Church got in on the action, too.
“It’s a great opportunity to meet different people and raise funds,” said Dawn Daughtry, a church minister who was selling food and books to benefit the church.
The festival stretched from the Barclays Center to Brooklyn Bridge Park and organizers said the projects were fitting book-ends for what they claim is the city’s largest street fair.
The Antic boasted all the staples of a typical New York street fair — there was more funnel cake and grilled corn than you can shake a skewer at — but the many-block party offered not-so-standard fare as well, with Bacchus Restaurant serving up blue point oysters and Mile End Deli dishing out smoked meat sandwiches.
“[The Barclays Center] is a great addition to the avenue,” said Christian Haag, president of the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation, which organizes the event. Haag said he is also a fan of the waterfront park at the road’s end.
No street fair would be complete without a bit of political theater and this year’s Antic delivered in a big way when Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez (D–Brooklyn Heights) and Councilman Steve Levin (D–Williamsburg) crowned Borough President Marty Makrowitz the king of Kings County.
Markowitz is nearing the end of his 12-year stint as Beep and he used the occasion to reflect on his tenure.
“When I was 16 I had a dream I wanted to be Brooklyn Borough President,” Markowitz said. “You’ve made my dreams come true, and I hope I’ve made your dreams come true in a little way, too.”
