Albany Abandons Popular Lark Street Festival After 40 Years
Things might be quieter near Washington Park in Albany later this month as a popular street festival that normally attracts 10s of thousands of people won't be happening.
Strangely, for an event that had been a staple for decades, there wasn't much fanfare about the change. Instead, the City announced a different event that will be taking its place.
For many years, Albany's Larkfest, had been an annual tradition taking place sometime in the middle of September, but apparently, that's not happening this year.
Billed as one of Upstate NY's largest one-day street festivals, it featured hundreds of vendors, multiple stages of music, and both local and national headlining musical acts. and was a staple in Albany for 40 years, establishing itself in the neighborhood way back in 1981.
But Larkfest is no more, and apparently, it's being replaced by a Fall version of an event the City of Albany has each summer, Art on Lark.
This was the message posted on DiscoverAlbany.com:
"In lieu of LarkFEST 2022, there will be a Fall Art on Lark Festival held. For more information on this event please click here."
According to Nippertown, in its 1981 debut, Larkfest attracted nearly 15,000 people, and city officials would see that number rise exponentially over the years.
In its second year, a second stage was added and nearly 30,000 people convened on the eclectic Albany street for a day of music, food, and fun.
In 1983, the crowd would grow even larger as the open container law went into effect. According to Nippertown, that year Larkfest had a crowd of about 60,000