Top: DJ Too Much on the ones and twos. Bottom: Angel Dahfay, founder and principal of Sweets & Sounds Entertainment and manager of public programming and activation for the New Haven Green. Grayce Howe Photos.
A ray of sunshine fell over DJ Too Much as she mixed a beat to Earth Wind & Fire’s “September,” nodding her head and grooving along with a smile. The sound flowed over Church Street, joyful and upbeat, the kind of mix that made a person want to grab a friend and dance.
That sound—as well as dancing, crafts, public art, food and music—is coming to downtown New Haven this summer, as the city launches its program of Open Streets Festivals. Planned for Church Street between Chapel and Elm Streets, the festivals will unfold July 20, 27, and August 3, all from 2 to 7 p.m.
The rain dates are currently August 10 and August 17. Over those three Sunday afternoons, the festivals will include everything from an open-air jazz café to a community mural project.
“It’s a way to imagine and experience the streets of New Haven as a car-free space, a public space where we can create and have fun,” said Cathy Graves, deputy director of Economic Development and director of the city’s Small Business Resource Center, at a press conference Tuesday afternoon. “So come join us as we activate our streets … Yes, New Haven’s got it.”
Rachel Lenda, director of the Connecticut Office of Tourism.
“When you close a street to cars and open it to people, you are saying, ‘This city is for you, come in, be a part of it,’” added Rachel Lenda, director of the Connecticut Office of Tourism. “That’s what makes this so special. It’s not just an event. It’s an invitation … to see what New Haven is all about.”
Produced by Sweets & Sounds Entertainment Founder Angel Dahfay, manager of public programming and activation for the New Haven Green, the festival lineup comes as the city plans to discuss accepting $4 million dollars in funding from the Connecticut Department of Transportation for changes to the New Haven Green, which sits alongside that same stretch of Church Street.
A public hearing on that funding will take place Thursday July 17 at City Hall, during a meeting of the New Haven Board of Alders’ City Service and Environmental Policy Committee (CSEP).
Over the next three weeks, that open-air celebration will take several forms, all in service of activating downtown New Haven and transforming the way city residents view, experience and engage with the public streets that shepherd them through the city.
They range from activities for the young—like a bouncy house—to the young at heart, like music meant to get people on their feet and dancing, with the goal of feeling as diverse and vibrant as the city itself.
There will be, for instance, live jazz music, a “festival stage” where people can dance, New Haven-based DJs and entertainers, and activities for young kids and teens alike. In a schedule for the event, Dahfay outlined a “Bounce House Row” with the eponymous bounce house, hop scotch and the mobile bookshop Peace, Love, Books, a food truck station with Mexican food, Jamaican offerings, and fried dough, and pop-up basketball courts for both kids and adults.
Tuesday afternoon, attendees also included some of the performing artists, such as CTRL Dance Company Founder and Principal Sharon Dickey and DJ Too Much, whose offstage persona is WineDown CT co-founder Loren Jefferson.
“It’s not just about closing the streets, it’s about opening the possibilities and bringing people together,” said Dahfay, who closed out 2024 with a New Year’s celebration on the Green, and has been working to bring arts and culture to the space in the months since. “It’s about reimagining what our public spaces can be.”
“I approached this project with one simple principle, and it was like, how do we transform a city street into something that truly reflects the spirit of New Haven,” she added. “My main thing was trying to invite people to [learn] how to play, how to connect through creativity.”
Jamal Robinson, founder and president of the Change In The Air Foundation, said that his downtown beer garden, CITA Park, is excited to be a partner on the project. Because the Open Streets Festivals are geared toward families, hCITA Park plans to focus mainly on mocktails and non-alcoholic beverages during those times.
The festivals come from New Haven’s Department of Transportation, Traffic and Parking and the Economic Development Administration. They aim to bring together both city residents and visitors of all ages to enjoy the vast culture of the city, while also experiencing streets as not a space for shared community.
These festivals build on initiatives that have multiplied in the past few years, including the New Haven Night Market, Lawrence Street Plaza, and Seeing Sounds Festival, all of which closed streets to traffic and turned them into vibrant pedestrian thoroughfares.
Grayce Howe is a recent graduate of New Haven Academy. She was the Arts Paper's 2024 New Haven Academy spring intern. The New Haven Academy internship is a program for NHA juniors that pairs them with a professional in a field that is interesting to them.