KINGSTON – Traffic jams backed halfway up Delaware Avenue in Kingston
on Saturday afternoon, punctuating the overflow crowd of patrons who came
to check out opening day for Smorgsaburg festival, an outdoor flea market
/ food emporium located in Ponckhockie, a quiet waterfront neighborhood
on the northern outskirts of the city.
Thousands attended the Smorgasburg on Saturday
Thousands thronged under the pavilions that once housed the old Hutton
brick works before the 76-acre industrial site closed down in 1980. This
property remained essentially abandoned ever since, except for a few failed
ventures, until two Brooklyn entrepreneurs recently brought their successful
yuppie market venture upstate.
Smorgasburg began in Kings County in 2011, as a spin-off of Brooklyn Flea,
the popular flea market founded by Jonathan Butler and Eric Demby in 2008.
Each weekend the downstate event showcases 100+ food vendors to upwards
of 10,000 visitors daily, making it one of the most popular tourist destinations
in Brooklyn.
The Kingston version, while not as crowded, made an impressive start,
organizers and city officials said. The 500-spot parking lot quickly filled
up and spilled out onto nearby side streets, including the adjacent Benevolent
Association. Others walked from the trolley terminus at Kingston Point.
”It’s bonkers,” observed Butler. ”We didn’t
know whether to worry about too few or too many people coming; it’s
definitely closer to too many, such amazing support we’ve had from
the community,” he said. In addition to local visitors, some traveled
over an hour, Butler noted.
Mayor Steven Noble also noticed a lot of new faces from out of town. ”We
knew this concept and site re-development would bring people, but we didn’t
know it would bring this many,” he said. ”There are a lot
of people that I don’t know down here, so I think it’s a really
good mix of Kingstonians and those from the outside who want to visit
Kingston,” he said.
Noble also said that Smorgasburg did not seem to impact the Uptown farmers
market. ”I was at the farmers market this morning. There was the
pretty standard crowd; it seemed as busy as normal today, he explained,
noting that Smorgasburg has no raw fruits and vegetables.
“It’s absolutely gratifying to see this response. It’s
beyond our expectations,” said Karl Slovin, president of MWest Holdings
LLC, owner of the brickyard property. “Hopefully it will keep up;
I can’t imagine why not. The vendors are excited, I hope we don’t
run out of food,” he said.
Slovin said Smorgasburg represents Phase I for the Hutton brickyard site,
with many more phases planned. Butler agreed. ”Assuming the crowds
keep showing up, we’ll think about what to do beyond that. The whole
idea is to try it out for a year. Hopefully the people in the city will
gain some trust in us, and we can have a conversation then about ideas
in the future,” he said.
”This place has sat vacant for decades,” said Noble. ”There
was a vision to return this property into something new, something creative,
something we can re-use, an addition to Kingston. I know that we still
have some kinks to work out, but we got people here, and that’s
the most important thing,” he said.
