Calpulli Youth Dance students perform in Tompkinsville Park during the St. George Day Festival on Saturday. (Staten Island Advance/Vincent Barone)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- About 3,000 Staten Islanders came out for the St. George Day Festival, held in Tompkinsville Park on Saturday.
The festival is a celebratory blend of local arts and cultures with the environmental consciousness of Earth Day all under the umbrella of the St. George and the Dragon legend.
Organizers closed the stretch of Bay Street behind Tompkinsville Park for the day to promote certain elements of the piece of Christian folklore. There's a de-emphasis of the more violent aspects of the St. George legend and a stress put on the positive messages of creative, nonviolent problem-solving and the importance of natural resources.
"Part of what makes this festival so valuable is the life and vitality it brings to this space," said Andrew Biancero, who co-organized the event with members of the neighborhood's Ganas Commune. "Thousands of people will walk through this space today that's completely filled with artists and vendors. We have 1,000 people performing here today, alone."
This year, the festival carried on tradition by featuring work from local crafters and artists, who hung their paintings in the park, or displayed their wares on tables. Performances included the Calpulli Youth Dancers and the Staten Island Philharmonic youth orchestra, among many others.
City Harvest, as well as Staten Island's three Community Supported Agriculture networks were in attendance to educate attendees on healthy snaking and the importance of local farming initiatives.
Bike NYC and Transportation Alternatives were working tables to tune bicycles and to promote cycling as a clean mode of transportation.
And the local yoga studio Hanuman Lounge conducted a quick, free group yoga class in Tompkinsville Park, during which congressional hopeful James Lane, running for New York's 11th Congressional District as a member of the Green Party, could be seen negotiating his way into tree pose.
Members of Eric Garner's family were also in attendance. Supporters mounted a temporary installation around Garner's memorial, located right across the street from the park. The installation featured ribbons with hand-written messages of support for Garner. At the end of the day, Garner supporter Tamiya Green said she would collect the ribbons and present them to Garner's family.
"We're out here today to make sure people remember Eric Garner," she said. "He was a part of St. George and he will be a part of St. George Day."