SOMERVILLE, MA — Broadway is set to become an open-air festival again when SomerStreets: Carnaval returns to East Somerville on Sunday, June 7. Presented by the Somerville Arts Council and East Somerville Main Streets, the event is scheduled for 2 to 6 p.m. from Pennsylvania Avenue to McGrath Highway.
The event is described as a celebration of East Somerville with music, movement, food, family activities, local vendors, and performances. The celebration is set to begin with a Brazilian-style opening procession featuring Grooversity and Samba Viva, followed by live entertainment, food vendors and family-friendly programming throughout the afternoon. Grooversity is a drum and percussion-based group with a focus on Afro-Brazilian rhythms in their music. Samba Viva is a Cambridge-based Brazilian dance ensemble.
SomerStreets is designed to be Somerville's version of the Open Streets concept, which closes busy city streets to vehicles and opens them for walking, dancing, running and music. The program is intended to promote easy access to physical activity and help reconnect residents with neighborhoods and businesses while turning space usually used by automobile traffic over to people.
Mayor Jake Wilson said the event reflects the neighborhood it is centered in.
“SomerStreets: Carnaval is a celebration of the cultures, businesses, families, artists, and neighbors that make this community so dynamic,” Wilson said. “I’m grateful to East Somerville Main Streets, the City’s Arts Council, and everyone helping bring Broadway to life for a day of joy, connection, and community pride.”
Each SomerStreets event closes a major roadway to vehicle traffic and reopens it for walking, biking, and event participation. For East Somerville, that means a stretch of Broadway will temporarily shift from car traffic to festival space for residents, visitors, and local businesses.
In the event of inclement weather, a rain date is set for Sunday, June 14.
SomerStreets' inaugural year was in 2010 when it was launched as an expansion to Shape Up Somerville, which had been operating for the previous eight years with the overarching goal of combating childhood obesity and promoting physical activity. SomerStreets takes inspiration from the Colombian initiative Ciclovía.
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