2nd Annual Huntington Awareness Day Parade and Fair

The second annual Huntington Awareness Day, will include a parade through Huntington Station and a fair that will celebrate the community’s unity, diversity and solidarity. 

Bands, floats, vintage cars, service groups and local merchants will join the march through Huntington Station from West Hills Road to Church Street, ending at a fair in the municipal parking lot between Railroad Street and Lowndes Avenue.  Longtime Huntington educator and historian Jack Abrams will be grand marshal of the parade.

The fair will include performances by local artists, a participatory chalk art activity and booths offering crafts and services. Local restaurants will be on hand to sell food. The day will also include a one-day Sidewalk Sale in Huntington Station for businesses along the parade route. 

New to the festivities this year are two activities that are part of the Town of Huntington’s Public Art Initiative.  A Chalk Flood of street drawings will offer community-wide opportunities for creative expression celebrating the Awareness Day theme of “Unity in the Community,” while a Huntington Kinetic Sculpture Competition will add a new element to the Parade up New York Avenue. 

The Chalk Flood, which will take place in designated portions of Huntington’s northwest LIRR commuter parking lot on New York Avenue (from Railroad Avenue to Church Street), will have two components: 

• Communal Drawing Area – a space where any member of the community can make a positive creative contribution to the celebration of “Unity in the Community.”  Just bring your creativity!  We’ll supply all the necessary materials. 
  
  
• Featured Street Artists Gallery – a juried space where only those artists accepted in advance through submission of an application will be assigned a portion of the limited space available.  An application form can be downloaded from the Huntington Awareness Day website: www.huntingtonawareness.org.  Applications must be received by noon on August 24, 2011.  Tips on street painting techniques can also be found at this web location.   

The Huntington Kinetic Sculpture Competition was inspired by Kinetic Sculpture Races held annually in Baltimore, California, and other locations nationwide.  While the Huntington event, will not include either the “race” or the “all-terrain” elements of these other Kinetic Sculpture events, we’re sure that it will offer ample opportunity for display of both creative imagination and engineering skills, as well as lots of fun for spectators and participants alike!  Competitors will join other Huntington Awareness Day Parade participants in traversing the 1.3 mile Parade route in their unique human-powered kinetic sculptures.  Judges will award prizes in a variety of competition categories in recognition of artistic creativity, engineering prowess, and expression of the Huntington Awareness Day theme – “Unity in the Community.”  Those interested in entering this competition can download an application form and competition rules from the Huntington Awareness Day website:  www.huntingtonawareness.org.  Applications must be received by noon on August 24, 2011.  Tips on constructing a kinetic sculpture are also available on this website. 

The parade and fair are being organized by the not-for-profit Huntington Awareness Community Partnership.