Good old-fashioned fun for Bay Ridgeites at annual Fourth of July Picnic

Why travel and get stuck in traffic to celebrate our nation’s independence when you can have a great time right here in Bay Ridge?

For the past eight years, Brooklynites Frankie Marra and Chip Cafiero have collaborated to host a local favorite event, the Greater Bay Ridge Fourth of July Picnic.

The all-day events hearkens back to days when picnics were the norm in the community, something the organizers wanted to bring back for Bay Ridgeites.

“Chip and I started this. We got the idea by realizing goes to nobody does picnics anymore. People go to backyards and have barbecues,” said Marra. “You would walk by on the Fourth and see some people doing barbecues, but the neighborhood was a ghost town. No one celebrated. One day, I saw Willie Nelson had big picnic in Texas and I said I’d like to do that at Shore Road, so I told Chip, who is a fantastic organizer, my idea and we have done it ever since.”

“Everybody says people go away for the Fourth of July, but still thousands of people show for the picnic,” Marra went on. “Some stay for the whole event, others stay for couple of hours. People stop by after they got to the beach or have their barbecue. It’s a great community event. People know each other. They talk and get up to dance.”

The event is free, and attendees typically bring their own food, chair and blankets. Five bands are slated to perform, including Windsor Terrors, Blues Circus, Ragtag, Max Christopher Band and Frankie Marra and His Band. According to Cafiero, all of the bands play for free.

For the two organizers, the best part of the event is bringing everyone together for an old-fashioned good time. “The highlight is people coming up to us and saying thank you for doing this,” said Marra. “People ask if you’re doing this again. It’s become their event and that makes it all worthwhile.”

In addition to a good time, the day-long event has a charitable aspect to it. Food is sold and the money raised goes to the 68^th Precinct Youth Council and the SWB Parks Task Force.

Even though the picnic start at noon, people show up hours earlier with bagels and coffee,” Cafiero said.

“It ends at about 8 p.m. which gives people time to walk to the pier and see the fireworks.

In addition to the food and live music, the whole lawn is also filled with face painters and sprinklers for the kids. It’s also a very patriotic event,” said Marra. “We give out flags for a dollar and they wave them all day. It’s great to see it happen as a tradition, a great day for Bay Ridge.”

The Fourth of July Picnic will be held on Saturday, July 4 from 12 -7 p.m. at the 82^nd Street Field at Shore Road. For more information, call 718-238-6044