Four Oyster Bay Street Fairs in Three Sundays. A Hicksville Storefront Booth Is $125.

On Tuesday morning, September 15, the Oyster Bay Town Board takes up a batch of requests for events on commercial streets in four of the town's downtowns over the next three Sundays. Two come from chambers of commerce, one from a fraternal lodge and one from a Kiwanis club. Each asks the town for equipment to run a one day event on a downtown street.

For a storefront on one of those blocks, a street fair is not an entertainment listing. It is a day when vehicles cannot reach the door, when the crowd walks past the window all day, and when the organizer is selling ten foot squares of pavement outside the shop to whoever pays first.

The four dates on the town's calendar

The Town Board's calendar for its September 15 meeting lists the following requests for town assistance.

Hicksville, Sunday, September 20. The Hicksville Chamber of Commerce's annual street fair, with a rain date of September 27. The resolution before the board names Nelson Avenue.

Syosset, Sunday, September 27. The Syosset Woodbury Chamber of Commerce's annual street fair on Jackson Avenue.

Massapequa, Sunday, September 27. The Columbus Lodge of the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America holds its 30th annual Italian feast and festival on North Broadway, with a rain date of October 4. The request includes a waiver of a section of the town code.

Bethpage, Sunday, October 4. The Bethpage-Central Park Kiwanis Club's annual fall fest on Broadway, between Powell Avenue and Nibbe Lane.

Look at the rain dates before you look at the fairs. If it rains in Hicksville on September 20, three events land on the same Sunday a week later. If it rains in Massapequa on September 27, that feast moves onto the same day as Bethpage's fall fest.

What a booth costs in Hicksville

The vendor packet for the Hicksville fair, issued by LI Fairs, the company running vendor registration for the Chamber, is unusually specific about pricing, and the structure is worth understanding.

A ten by ten space for crafters or general merchandise is $125. A brick and mortar business operating within the fair's own zip code pays the same $125 as a community storefront. A storefront business from outside that zip code pays $250, and so does a business with no street level storefront at all. Food vendors use a separate application. The published registration deadline was September 10, with $25 added for registrations postmarked after it.

The packet also sets out the day. Vendors check in from 8 in the morning, all vehicles must be off the fair grounds by 9:40, the fair runs from 10 to 4, vehicles are not let back in until 4:30, and everyone must be off site by 5:30. For a shop on the block, that is the practical closure window, roughly a full business day.

One detail needs checking. The resolution on the town's calendar names Nelson Avenue, while the vendor packet describes the fair on Jerusalem Avenue, from West John Street to Herzog Place, by the train station. If your business is on either street, confirm the layout with the Hicksville Chamber this week rather than on Sunday morning.

What sponsorship costs in Syosset

The Syosset Woodbury Jericho Chamber of Commerce lists its fair from 10 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon on September 27. Its early bird prices ended on June 30. What it is still selling is space on the fair's giveaway bag: seven sponsor spots at $495 each, on a bag the Chamber says will go to 750 attendees.

That works out to about 66 cents per bag in a sponsor's name. Whether that is good value depends on who picks the bag up. For a business whose customers live within a few miles of Jackson Avenue, set it against what you pay to put a postcard in the same mailboxes. For a business that sells to other businesses, it is mostly a way of being seen by neighbors.

What it means for members

If your storefront is on Nelson Avenue or Jerusalem Avenue in Hicksville, Jackson Avenue in Syosset, North Broadway in Massapequa or Broadway in Bethpage, plan the day now. Move any Sunday deliveries, schedule extra staff for the hours the crowd is there, and put something on the sidewalk worth stopping for, because the fair will be walking past your door whether you take part or not.

If you are deciding whether to take a booth, the Hicksville pricing gives a shop inside the fair's zip code the same rate as a crafter and half what an outside business pays. That is the organizer telling local storefronts they are wanted. Call the chamber running the fair before the weekend, and keep the rain dates clear on your own calendar.