Festival Helps Swampscott Families Reconnect On The Beach

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — What started as a series of socially distanced outdoor gatherings amid the early isolation of the COVID-19 health crisis has evolved into Swampscott's first Family Fest on Fisherman's Beach this Saturday.

The free event, which runs from 3 to 7 p.m., will include music, food and family activities in what is one part a farewell to summer and one part furthering the connections between families in town that may have been fractured during parts of the past 2 1/2 years.

"We were excited to do an event that people could do with their kids," said Swampscott Recreation Board member John Allen, who helped organize the Swampscott Family Fun Fest along with his wife, Caroline, fellow Board member Danielle Strauss and Select Board member David Grishman. "You have Swamptober Fest, which has some kids' activities, but it's a lot of loud music and is a little more of an adult thing. We were looking for an event where we could have more families and have things more geared toward kids."

Allen said the genesis of the Family Fest came out of the informal family meet-ups that occurred at Linscott Park during the first summer of the pandemic where groups would try to socialize while still staying safe.

"We did those outside where most people felt comfortable," Allen told Patch Friday. "They started out as breakfasts with a few families and then once things got going on Facebook more and more families started showing up."

The so-called "mix-and-mingles" included an outdoor Halloween party that year where kids and parents dressed up as a substitute for traditional trick-or-treating.

Once the pandemic began to wane, and residents more or less got back to their old routines and social habits, Allen said Grishman approached him and Caroline about evolving the mix-and-mingles into a different form.

"We took what we were doing before and amplified it building off the (Facebook) list we had already accumulated," Allen said. "I am sure it will be a really nice event and a way for families to connect with each other. I hope it will be a great kickoff but also a good event to build onto for future family festivals."

He said the event page indicated as of Friday that more than a thousand people were interested in the event and more than 100 said they were going. He said he hopes that with nice weather a few hundred will make it down to the beach.

DJ Lanie Mac Music will be there along with games for kids, there will be free family photos, face painting by Rachel Gladstone, and Save the Harbor/Save the Bay will be on hand to highlight the activities they are organizing this year and next year.

The Hiccup Inc. and Seaside Swampscott will showcase new and exciting products for kids and adults, as well as information and activity booths from the Lynch/van Otterloo YMCA, the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore and Michelle Volz Steingiser with Usborne books.

The Swampscott Yacht Club will be grilling hot dogs and burgers, as well as there will be food from Joe's on A ROLL, Swampscott's local ice cream truck and s'mores available.

The Proper Nest and Weaver Orthodontics are event sponsors.

"I am sure when it's over we will come back with a bunch of other things we could have done with it," Allen said. "We'll probably do a survey after it asking what people liked and what other things could be added in future events."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)