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JAMESTOWN, NY (WNY News Now) – With Labor Day less than a month away, the City of Jamestown is gearing up to host its traditional festival for the first time since the pandemic.
Collaborate Children’s Solutions owner Patrick Smeraldo is working with the Labor Day Committee to host the 41st annual Labor Day Festival on Sunday, September 4 at Bergman Park.
“We are starting with the Dan Feather race, the Y will be putting that on. Registration is at 8 and the race will be at 9:30, and then the actual event in itself will begin at 11 with the craft fair that we have. It’s a huge craft fair, we’re inviting craft vendors up to share their items and sell their items to the community. And then at noon begins the music and the food vendors,” explains Smeraldo.
Event organizers, along with Smeraldo, are shooting for a family style picnic atmosphere. They hope the event will be a good send off before kids go back to school, as well as honoring the holiday.
“The concept of it is to celebrate the labor forces in Chautauqua County. And our labor force does a huge service to us, and our electricians union, Ahlstrom Schaeffer and a bunch of electricians actually play a huge part in Labor Day. They’re on the committee,” says Smeraldo.
Not only will local live music be on tap, but also, a competitive cheerleading group, Xplosion Cheer, to showcase their talents.
“Between pro-wrestling Randy Grey will have Southern Tier wrestling up there, petting zoos, magicians,” boasts Smeraldo. “Scott Mekus will be up there, Eventz by Scott will be up there with kids games for all the kids. It really is a family environment.”
The night will conclude with a firework extravaganza at 8:30 p.m. after a day full of festivities, including the presentation of the George Ritzer Labor Award at 4:30 p.m.
“Number one, it’s free to attend, you don’t have to buy a ticket. There’s no pressure to visit any one particular food outlet or snack outlet. There’s two stages of performers. There’s the main stage with bands and then there’s a side stage where there will be bands there too and some kids performing,” says Smeraldo.
Smeraldo says that since putting on events like Christmas in July and the holiday parade, he has learned about a variety of groups children can get involved in during the summer such as performing arts groups, cheerleading and dance groups, and sport card collecting.
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