St. Anthony’s Feast draws in thousands

St. Anthony’s Feast, which is now in its 52nd year, saw thousands of attendees over the four-day festival from June 8 to 11. Boasting eight food booths plus a handful of food trucks, the packed feast catered to anyone tastebuds. And with over a dozen rides, it was the place to be this past weekend.

It’s been three years since the start of the pandemic, but feast chairman Thomas Cesiro III said the ripples can still be felt. “We lost a lot of volunteers,” he said, “so last year we did mostly food trucks because they couldn’t operate everything. This year, we added more food booths, and booths that our volunteers are running, and several more food trucks. So, this was a great combination.”

With clear skies and the air quality alert nearly gone, Cesiro summed up that, “This is a banner year, we have a lot of volunteers helping and we’re moving along great. Everyone comes here, it’s a big community event and it’s well known in other communities, from Baldwin, Rockville Centre, they all know our feast and they all come here.”

Families enjoyed the low-to-the-ground rides as well as the daring ones. Charly Griffiths went on many rides with her father John, but “I wasn’t the one who was a baby, it was my dad,” Charly said, explaining “He refused to go on the Zipper.”

Barry and Luciano Rauch live nearby and said they came because they, “like to do local things, we’ve been (at the feast) three, four years (in a row).” Luciano said her favorite ride was the Swings, because “it’s fast!” They said they also enjoyed the funhouse, carousel, Ferris wheel, boats and paratrooper rides offered.