On Sunday, Weaver Street was closed in order to make it open. Confused? Don’t be.

For the last five years, Carrboro Recreation and Parks has closed off portions of Weaver Street to cars so that community members could enjoy local vendors, demonstrations and activities.

“I think the way the event is geared towards [being] healthy, being active, being outside, that’s what sets it apart from other events,” said recreation supervisor Galen Poythress. “The energy of the event is really just about … participating and actually engaging with other people.”

While many of the vendors and demonstrations were geared toward an active lifestyle – with Back Alley Bikes, Townsend Bertram & Co. and KOTOX Taekwondo being just a few – others were simply for fun.

One booth, run by Aidan’s Pizza, brought raw dough so that passersby could try their hand at pizza tossing.

“It’s more for the kids – we don’t get anything out of it,” said Thomas Kaczor, owner of Aidan’s Pizza. “We were hoping the first year that it would be for advertising purposes, but that’s not what happened. I haven’t really given away a single menu. We just have a lot of fun with the kids.”

Families with toddlers and strollers zig-zagged across the street, moving from Aidan’s pizza toss to each of the 31 other vendors that lined both East and West Weaver Street.

“While the road is split in half [by N. Greensboro Street], you’ve got these large areas where people can get together and … actually be a community,” Poythress said. “So you close down the street, and you get everyone together.”

Poythress estimated that several thousand people attended this year’s event.

 

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