The Feast of the East, 2009
If you drove on Massachusetts Avenue in East Arlington this fine Saturday afternoon, you could not have missed the festival taking place on both sides of the street. Today was the Feast of the East – the annual festival in Capitol Square, better known, probably, as the “Lake Street” area. The Feast of the East is the brainchild of Jack Hurd, a town selectman. This year was the 11th year it has run. It’s funded by local businesses, but caters to safe family activities: face painting, jumping castles, food and of course, cotton candy and other sweets.
And I mention driving because the Feast was certainly a noticeable event to those driving in the area. Here’s a look at one of the side streets leading to Massachusetts Avenue. The police were restricting traffic through the area due to the large number of people, especially children, at the feast.
Massachusetts Avenue itself was quite a spectacle. There were police lines on sawhorses on both sides of the street running for quite a distance to allow feast-goers to have more room to move about. On each side of the street there were tables, booths, canopies and so forth. There is not a lot of space apart from the sidewalk here, so this extra room made a lot of sense. Down by the Trinity Baptist Church, however, where there is a lawn, there were jumping castles and a band playing.
Right in front of Artbeat there was some really good face painting. Up in the top of the canopy here, there were a bunch of Artbeat balloons and I couldn’t resist snapping a quick shot of them. The line wasn’t that long either – a real plus if you are a parent with impatient kids.
Residents of East Arlington know this area well – the Fox Library and Clay Dreams just a few stores down. This stretch of Massachusetts Avenue has a really diverse range of shops. Aside from these two gems, there are restaurants, convenience stores, bakeries, art stores, and stores selling artwork, pottery and other hand-crafted items.
It turned out to be a perfect day this year – sunny but not too hot. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits – as you can see – even the laundromat had to get in on the action.
