ICYMI: A View From The 2016 Flatbush Frolic
For the Flatbush Frolic on Cortelyou Road, the annual festival celebrating local community, residents could not have asked for a more beautiful Sunday.
On September 25, Cortelyou Road from Ocean Avenue to Coney Island Avenue was packed with a collection of performers, food, crafts and community outreach tables — from Third Root Community Health Center and the Community Emergency Response Team, to the petite train offering rides up and down 18th Street like a life-sized Thomas & Friends engine.
Businesses brought displays from behind their glass confines onto the street, with some blasting music like the DJ booth at Junior’s Car Service between Marlborough Road and East 16th Street.
An outdoor beer garden and food court blossomed between Westminster and Stratford Roads from Sycamore, Lea, The Farm on Adderley, Bashi Channel, Mimi’s Hummus, and Connecticut Muffin.
Latin Fever Dance Studio hosted a ‘Bet You Can Do It Like Me’ children’s dance competition, offering a month of free classes to the dancer with the best moves.
The smoke from sizzling corn, chicken, sausages, arepas and — of course — friend Oreos, hung above the eclectic crowd of neighbors.
I took a moment to rest near Rugby Road, sipping on the juice of a hollowed out coconut through a straw. It was three bucks; the most inexpensive, natural coconut water I’ve ever tasted.
The lead singer of local band Jules and the Jinks belted out a chorus from the nearby stage, her crimson sleeves billowing in the wind like wings.
Later, I heard the slow, soulful beat of Bob Marley’s ‘Jammin’ before I saw the band, with their speakers erected between Bar Chord and a bouncy house, their dreds swinging in the sunlight — Alegba and Russel of Alegba and Friends, jamming like pros. They drew a crowd, Alexandra, Kevin and Chris, to their circle as they rotated instruments, building on each other’s skills and talents.
Alexandra made up a song on-the-fly, which repeated the refrain: “I don’t know what I’m sayin. But I’m having fun. I’m chillin. It’s a beautiful day.” She hit on the key note of the day: This afternoon was about celebrating and extending community.
Special thanks to photographer Alex K of Midwood Productions for the beautifully captured event photos below:
