The St George Day Festival encourages environmental stewardship through storytelling, spectacle and innovative educational & community-building activities.
Leader
Jennifer Lytton
Location
Little Bay Street Staten Island, NY 10301
The St George Day Festival is an arts and earth day celebration of community, culture and dragons.
We bring together the diverse residents of Staten Island's North Shore to promote communal pride and environmental awareness. With three live stages showcasing music, dance, literary work and children's performances; earth day activities, games and demonstrations; art exhibits and activities; and more, it is a unique celebration of the natural and artistic resources of the neighborhood.
The highlight of the day is a Giant Dragon Parade followed by a Giant Puppet Show promoting our themes of cooperative problem solving and sharing of natural resources. We refashion the St George Day Myth to one in which St George and the dragon resolve their differences peacefully and learn to share the water.
The Festival is created by an all volunteer, grassroots, organizing committee of local artists, activists and community organizers. We invite local people, schools and organizations to create work and participate in activities around the themes of community, resource sharing and problem solving. We create a communal process to produce the festival that in turn, helps to celebrate and cultivate community.
St George is a vibrant, low income, racially diverse neighborhood on Staten Island’s North Shore surrounding the ferry terminal. The festival takes place in an underutilized green space, centrally located in St. George. The goals of the festival are to bring people together to share ideas; to promote civic pride by celebrating the area’s artistic, cultural and natural resources; and to encourage positive programming in the park by example.