Friday, July 11, 2014

Festival Time

July Fest has arrived in downtown Binghamton, New York, a small city of about 47,000. people. 

Sad to say, but many people in this area hesitate to come to downtown Binghamton.  For many years, buildings sat vacant for years.  This is changing.  New businesses open almost month by month.  Binghamton has a ways to go before it can return to when its downtown was vibrant, but the journey has begun.

The Brunner Building, downtown Binghamton

So, why come?  If you are interested in architecture, downtown Binghamton will satisfy your needs.
(If the author of the article I'm linking to knew how to spell "Binghamton", it might have been better. No, we aren't on Long Island.  No, we aren't a Hampton.)
Here's another picture of the Brunner building, for you architecture fans, taken by my "guest photographer".  Some pictures today are mine, some are hers.  Visible in this picture is a green man.

This is only one of many treasures awaiting the visitor, although enough buildings still need renovation.
July Fest itself is another reason to come. The sound of music was in the air today, with a jazz and music festival that merged with July Fest in 2010. Like so many other times, music helped to revive what for, a while, had been a declining July Fest.  Now the festival grows each year, and expanded from two days to three a year or two ago.

The building in the upper right hand corner with the two top stories a different color than the lower stories, is another historic building, owned by a life insurance company.
People were posing with Mr. Peanut on normally busy Court Street.

Elsewhere, art booths were set up on one street.  Along Court Street, crafts and food vendors were selling their merchandise.  It's nice to have a street fair downtown.

The Friday farmer's market was selling lettuce, swiss chard, squash, herbs.  I had an interesting talk with one of the vendors, which I will hopefully blog about more later this month.
Lilies, downtown Binghamton

Trumpet Vine, downtown Binghamton
Flowers were blooming everywhere.

July Fest continues tomorrow and Sunday.  If you live anywhere near Binghamton, please come out.  Architecture? flowers? food? jazz? crafts? Lovely art?  You'll find it all. 

Do you have local festivals where you live?

4 comments:

  1. I love the architecture of the old building. It's horrible the way some areas get run down, but I'm glad people are moving in again. June is a wonderful time for flowers. The roses are lovely here in England at this time. The hydrangea which grows outside our bedroom window is nine feet tall and covered with pink, mauve and blue flowers, each the size of a head. Spectacular. I put the extra growth down to all the rain we've had.

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    1. Your hydrangea sounds marvelous. The ones in this area are finally starting to bloom. Some are blue, some are pink, many are white.

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  2. July fest sounds amazing!
    I love local fetes.
    I went to a carnival last weekend at my nearest town, it's so important to support our local community.

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    1. It is important to support the community, yes. That's true no matter where we live. I don't know if we will go again today but there's a late afternoon act I'd like to see. Depends how tire we are after the morning we have planned.

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