New Red Hook beer garden will debut Friday
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A group of Red Hook residents
are launching a new
beer garden and familyfriendly
hangout on Conover
Street, turning a now-vacant
lot into a space for cooped-up
Brooklynites to mingle outdoors,
said its organizer
“We’re crazy enough to
do this,” said David Wiesner,
an eight-year resident of the
neighborhood. “It was one of
these empty lots and we’re just
doing a rock and roll beer garden.”
Local architect Alex Washburn,
who owns the lot on
the corner of Wolcott Street,
asked Wiesner to run the outdoor
brew haven every weekend
while he works on getting
permits to eventually develop
BEER
Red Hook Beer Garden
184 Conover St., at Wolcott
Street in Red Hook, www.instagram.
com/rh_beergarden.
Fridays-Sundays starting Aug.
28 through Oct. 4. Fridays 2
pm-10 pm, Saturdays noon-11
pm, Sundays noon-10 pm. No
cover charge.
it into residential buildings.
The new space will feature
a selection of beer from
Nearby Sixpoint Brewery, as
well as food trucks, fl ea markets,
astroturf for sociallydistanced
COURIER L 34 IFE, AUG. 28-SEPT. 3, 2020
bocce, and a sandbox
for young Brooklynites to
play, said Wiesner.
The entrepreneur also
partnered with local nonprofits
Cora Dance and Red Hook
Art Project on the initiative,
and the organizations will offer
programming for neighborhood
youngsters in the
beer garden, such as dance
performances and a kids arts
corner.
His companies previously
catered to two temporary
health facilities the government
set up during the height
of the pandemic, including the
Billie Jean King National Tennis
Center in Queens and the
Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, although
the latter never took in
patients.
Originally from Munich,
Germany, the Brooklynite
aims to open the space every
weekend until early October,
when he hopes to cap off
the run with an Oktoberfestthemed
event.
“We will set it up as a full
Oktoberfest beer garden if all
goes well,” he said.
Residents of the waterfront
nabe have become creative
with unused space to the people
amid the pandemic, such
as maritime advocacy group
PortSide New York, which
opened a “Pandemic Pop-up
Park” at a parking lot near the
Atlantic Basin in July.
BY ROSE ADAMS
Sea monsters and fi n folk
can tune into a virtual livestream
of Coney Island’s beloved
Mermaid Parade this
Saturday, Aug. 29, which will
feature musical performances,
dances, and marches, according
to its organizers.
“You might see some familiar
faces,” said Mark Alhadeff,
a member of the arts organization
Coney Island USA who
helped host the event, now in
its 38th year. “A lot of your favorites
from the Mermaid Parade
sent things in.”
The Mermaid Parade,
which was postponed from
its original June 20 date due
to the coronavirus outbreak,
will be held online to prevent
the virus from spreading, Alhadeff
said. A small group of
participants will perform in
an undisclosed, Coney Island
location for a livestream that
viewers can stream on Coney
Island USA’s website, he said.
“Our MCs are here, some
specials guests are here,” said
Alhadeff, who emphasized
that the in-person performance
space will follow strict
social-distancing guidelines.
“It’s a very, very big space. It’s
incredibly well ventilated.”
In addition to live dances
and marches, the event will
also feature pre-recorded performances
by well-known musicians
singing songs about
Coney Island, such as Arlo
Guthrie, the lead singer of
the rock band Death Cab for
Cutie, and the lead singer of
the alternative rock band The
Feelies.
The show has received
nearly 200 video submissions
from potential participants so
far, said Alhadeff, who added
that some of his favorite footage
features costumed revelers
parading through their
apartments by themselves.
“We’re hoping to have some
people who literally parade,”
he said. “People going back
and forth across their apartments
— it makes me happy.”
The event’s hosts originally
planned to partner with bars
across the country to host disparate,
live-streamed celebrations
of the festival, but Coney
Island USA decided to go completely
virtual out of concern
for viewers’ health, Alhadeff
said.
“Because of what’s going
on in the world, we killed the
venue concept on the whole,”
he said. “We are not offi cially
sanctioning any venues.”
Rather than taking the
form of a parade or party, the
reimagined event will imitate
a 1970s charitable telethon,
Alhadeff said. Viewers can
make donations throughout
the livestream on the organization’s
website, which will go
to Coney Island USA and other
local non-profi ts including include
the youth services program
Salt and Sea Mission,
the southern Brooklyn community
organization Urban
Neighborhood Services, and
the Brooklyn arts organization
BRIC, among others.
In the style of a telethon, the
event’s hosts will give shoutouts
and prizes to donors, impersonate
the 1970s telethon
performer Jerry Lewis, and
count the donations as they
roll in on a gigantic thermometer,
Alhadeff said.
Participants may also enter
the parade’s annual costume
awards, known as the
Mermies, which dole out trophies
for the best mermaid and
Neptune costumes, the best
kids costume, the best sea creature,
and the best music group,
among other categories.
Despite the parade’s setbacks
due to the coronavirus
outbreak, Alhadeff said that
the Aug. 29 event will capture
the spirit of the fun-loving parade.
“It’s basically a big variety
show with Jerry Lewis in
between,” he said. “If you’ve
been to the Mermaid Parade,
it will probably feel familiar.”
Raise your glass!
Reimagined Coney Island Mermaid
Parade slated for this weekend
BROOKLYN
Get your freak on
CHEERS: David Wiesner and his wife Nicole Delacrétaz Wiesner are setting
up a beer garden at Conover Street in Red Hook. Photo by Kevin
Duggan
FISH HEADS: One Mermaid Parade participant, Paul Maguire, submitted
a video that will be featured during the Aug. 29 show.
Photo by Paul Maguire
/rh_beergarden
/rh_beergarden
/rh_beergarden