Weekend festival preparations under way

Details from banner advertising Garcia's
Independence Festival (note use of social media).

Preparations are under way for dual festivals slated for Plainfield this weekend.

Trucks with carnival rides have begun to squeeze into non-parking areas of Lot 8 behind Assemblyman Green's office in preparation for setting up for Saturday and Sunday's festival in celebration of Central American and Mexican Independence.

This is the fourth year that Edison Garcia, owner of Los Faraones, will be staging the weekend festival. Booked up with musical groups that perform on a stage in Lot 8A, the festival features food vendors, carnival games and rides and a variety of merchandise offerings from toys to clothing and handcrafted 'cowboy' boots.

As always, entry to Garcia's festival is free to the public, and his redoubtable security staff strictly enforces the ban on carrying beer away from the tents provided in the Lot 8A area.

The well-managed event is becoming a regional draw, bringing thousands of visitors into Plainfield for the two days.

Across Watchung Avenue, in Lot 1, Rodney Maree of Chez Maree is readying the lot for his first multicultural festival, also slated for Saturday and Sunday.

Crews of private landscapers have been busy over the past week or so cutting down weeds and overgrowth and removing rubbish from the expansive lot, which runs from behind the Watchung Avenue businesses eastward to the lot behind the Supremo supermarket.

Though one of the largest of the city's parking lots, it is little used and suffers from general neglect, with huge sunken patches and faded striping.

Hopefully, Maree's event will be successful and generate interest in the lot as deserving of some investment by the city -- especially since the Barack Obama Green Charter High School has located in a nearby building.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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