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Dobbs Ferry Festa To Celebrate Community Saturday

DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. – Local residents and businesses will gather Saturday for the 10th Dobbs Ferry Festa, a celebration of community and a day of fun for all ages. The event will feature live music and several local vendors.

“It is about building community and restoring a sense of civility that seemed to disappear from our culture when we transitioned from thinking of ourselves as citizens to being consumers,” said Paddy Steinschneider, chair of the Festa committee. “The Festa is a community celebration and an opportunity for everyone to share their energy, thoughts, feelings, and spirit.”

This year’s Festa, to be held from 1 to 8 p.m. in downtown Dobbs Ferry, will focus on the community and local businesses. Steinschneider said he hopes the business community will take full advantage of this opportunity to interact with the community.

“In effect, my goal follows the spirit of the adage: If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he feeds himself for life,” Steinschneider said. “My hope is that with the increased participation of store owners and building owners in the downtown, they will brand this as their event.”

Although this is the tenth Festa, the event has a past dating much further back. The Festa was originally held in the 1960s and 70s, before coming to an end. This generation of Festas began in 2002 as a way of strengthening community bonds, Steinschneider said.

“It was a great success and had the desired affect of reminding everyone why it is great to live in a community like Dobbs Ferry,” he said. “After that first Festa, a decision was made to continue the Festa as a new Dobbs Ferry tradition.”

Although the Festa is not a village event, village officials, police, and the Department of Public Works play a key role in making sure everything runs smoothly, Steinschneider said. The event is funded by donations and vendor fees and usually generates enough money to cover the cost of the current year’s event with some left over to start planning the next Festa, he said.

The live music kicks off with The Jonny Hirsch Band at 12:45 p.m. on the Main Stage, followed by Lugwrench at 3 p.m. and Seventh Sunn at 6 p.m. The Dobbs Ferry Energy Task Force will also award its first annual Eagle Award for Environmental Excellence at 5 p.m. in front of Village Hall. For more information about the Festa, visit http://www.ferryfesta.com/

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