Red Hookers toasted their neighborhood at the second annual Celebrating Red Hook festival at Erie Basin Park on July 25 — this time with actual booze.
Visitors to the fete sampled food from local vendors and — for the first time — local libations, which made the party even more welcoming and paired perfectly with the fireworks display, a local winery worker said.
“It was so fun to be outdoors with people in the neighborhood having a glass of wine — that’s not something you get to do all the time,” said Red Hook Winery manager Sandra Nicholas. “It became a wine-by-the-glass evening under the fireworks.”
Fellow Hook booze-slingers Six Point Brewery and Uncouth Vermouth joined Red Hook Winery in serving up good spirits to the masses. Organizers said they added the adult-beverage purveyors to the celebration not to get the crowd soused, but to show off all the great things brewing in Red hook.
“It wasn’t so much that we wanted it to be a beer fest, but there are people in the neighborhood whose crafts are spirits, and we didn’t want to say, ‘You can’t be included just because you sell alcohol,’” said organizer Kimberly Gail Price. “They’re a big part of Red Hook.”
More than 70 area businesses and artists’ groups — double last year’s figure — displayed and peddled their wares at the fest, Price said. And they weren’t just for attendees over the legal drinking age — youngsters came from near and far to enjoy crafts, face-painting, performances, and games, which proved particularly popular with one mother’s brood.
“[My kids] were really fascinated by the giant Jenga,” said Robina Taliaferrow, who came from Bedford-Stuyvesant for the festival.
