East Somerville's 'Carnaval' Rolls Into Town Next Month

SOMERVILLE, MA – The East Somerville SomerStreets: Carnaval returns for its eighth year next month, kicking off the SomerStreets 2017 season. The festival is Somerville's local take on the "open streets" concept, closing city streets to vehicles and opening them up for biking, walking, dancing and other modes of activity (yes drivers, that means there will be detours).

Carnaval will be held Sunday, June 4 from 2-6 p.m. Events will take place along East Broadway from McGrath Highway to Pennsylvania Avenue.

The festival kicks off with a Motion Parade at 2 p.m. beginning at the Cross St. Senior Center, 165 Broadway.

Keep your feet moving with a variety of interactive activities including stilts and parkour, or watch Esh Circus Arts fly through the air on their trapeze rig. Play soccer and preschool games with the Somerville Recreation Department. Hop aboard the Arts Council’s MUSCRAT bus for a series of shorts filmed in East Somerville, be part of a talk show interview with SCATV, and let your creative side shine by making crafts, gadgets, and other engineering projects with Parts and Crafts. Join the Beautiful Stuff Project for mask making, and participate in the mask contest by tweeting pictures with #eastsomerville.

Check out music throughout the day on three stages. Acts include Zili Musik, Grupo Los Nitidos, A Nova Brazil, La Nueva Serie, Somerville Symphony Orkestrar, Electrolux Combo, Loma Larga Banda de la Paz, and DJ Sotomatic.Attend a concert from Somerville’s own string section from El Sistema, hear performances by Girls Rock Band, marimba music from the students at the East Somerville Community School, and see dances from On Stage Dance Company and Rancho Folclórico Corações Lusíadas. After Carnaval, continue the fun by joining some of this year’s performers at the El Sistema concert at the East Somerville Community School on June 6 at 7 p.m.

To ensure public safety at the event, several road closures and parking bans will be in effect between McGrath Highway and Lombardi Way.:

• Closed to all vehicular traffic
• No parking on either side of the street from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Residents who live on the west side of Broadway will be detoured onto Broadway at Pennsylvania Ave.; Residents who live on the east side of Broadway will be detoured onto Pearl St.

MBTA buses will be rerouted from 12 noon to 8 p.m. For full detour information, visit www.mbta.com.

SomerStreets is an annual series that takes place one Sunday per month in the months of June through October. All SomerStreets events run from 2 to 6 p.m. The 2017 event schedule is as follows:

• Sunday, June 4 (rain date June 11): Carnaval @ SomerStreets, lower Broadway (McGrath Highway to Pennsylvania Ave.)
• Sunday, Aug. 6: Seize the Summer @ SomerStreets, Holland St. (Davis Sq. to Teele Sq.)
• Sunday, Sept. 17: Strike Up the Bands @ SomerStreets, Highland Ave. (School St. to Lowell St.)
• Sunday, Oct. 22: Monster MashedUp @ SomerStreets. Somerville Ave. (Union Sq. to Lowell St.)

For more information about road closures contact 311 (617-666-3311). For information on how to participate in any of the SomerStreets events, contact Nina Eichner, Special Events Manager, at 617-625-6600 ext. 2998 orNEichner@somervillema.gov.

Patch File Photo