Residents, Vendors Flock to Laurel Main Street Fest

Vendors lined the streets with activities, foods and crafts while residents hopped from one booth to another at the Laurel Main Street Festival Saturday.

The event, organized by the Laurel Board of Trade, is in its 31st year. Meant to showcase local businesses, the festival continues to draw huge crowds every year.

"There's a lot of variety and a lot of hometown," said Laurel Board of Trade President Michelle DeLorenzo Arsenault. "That's probably one of the biggest things we wanted to do."

Eight-year-old Mackenzie Somerville, from North Laurel, has been attending the festival since birth.

"You can eat, you can play games,” she said while painting a ceramic turtle at the festival. “You can ride ponies and it's really fun." 

Organizers made a push to include more merchants from Main Street.

"This year we have more Main Street merchants participating than ever before," said Janet Able, the board's treasurer. "Main Street merchants are allowed to have a spot in front of their store free of charge.”

Some local businesses said it was their first year at the event.

Robert Crawford, who runs , a specialty gym training facility two blocks from Main Street at the, set up a booth at the festival for the first time.

"Because we're right around the corner, I didn't bother to come down to the Main Street Fest," he said about previous years. "I'd just come down to pass out flyers."

Still, Crawford said he was happy with the results he got by setting up a booth this year.

"Quite surprisingly, we are getting a lot of interest and individuals who work with me are also stopping by," he said.

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