Craftmakers from across the region are gearing up and getting ready to descend on Babylon Village for one of the island’s largest and longest-running craft fairs.
The fair’s 275 registered vendors will begin arriving to Argyle Park as early as 5 a.m. this Sunday, Sept 10, said Frank Petruzzo, president of the Babylon Beautification Society, which founded and still runs The Annual Fair.
“It’s a public park so a lot of them start setting up early, and then the public starts showing up around 9 a.m.,” Petruzzo said. “The music and emcee don’t get going until noon.”
The music and food is centered around the village’s gazebo, in the park’s southern side. “We’ll be selling all different types of food,” Petruzzo said.
The vendors themselves ring Argyle Lake to the immediate north.
The money raised at the society’s chief fundraiser goes back into keeping Babylon Village beautiful. The society uses the money raised for such projects and programs as the hanging baskets, holiday lights at Christmastime, lining the village with shrubs and trees and more.
The society was also responsible for the Robert Moses statue on Main Street, and has more larger projects in the works.
“We work in great partnership with the village,” Petruzzo said.
The Annual Fair itself, also referred to as the BBS Annual Country Fair, traces its roots to one woman, Mayor Ralph Scordino’s reminded in his regular address to residents on the village Facebook page.
“It all began with one woman, a vision and a garage sale,” he wrote. “It was the summer of 1971 when Isabel Gallagher, a resident of Babylon Village, approached then Mayor Gilbert C. Hanse about beautifying the downtown business district.
“Isabel herself maintained a beautiful garden surrounding her home and wanted to do the same in the Village. Recruiting a few friends and sending out mailings, Isabel invited people to a meeting at Village Hall who were interested in making ‘Babylon Beautiful.'”
The Babylon Beautification Society was formed.
“As you see the hanging baskets throughout the Village still today, back then, Isabel Gallagher and the BBS board held a garage sale in the parking lot of the Babylon High School to raise funds to buy those baskets,” Scordino wrote.
That event evolved into today’s Annual Fair.
(Scroll down for Scordino’s full address.)
Petruzzo said the offerings at the fair vary, from jewelry to garden items to clothing, candles and artisan foodstuffs.
“There’s a lot of different items there and many vendors come back year after year,” he said, with some hailing from as far away as New Jersey, Florida and New Hampshire. “But they’re mostly from Long Island.”
He also said a truly special thing about the event, given its size, is that it’s all-volunteer run.
“Everybody who works the fair is a volunteer; it’s truly a community effort,” he said. “They’re donating their time of the beautification society and all of the proceeds go right back into the village.”
“And the forecast looks good so that’s half the battle,” Petruzzo added
Photo Credit: Babylon Beautification Society Facebook photo.
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