Senior Bucket List: The South Boston Street Festival

South Boston From Afar. | Photo courtesy of Wikimedia user Luciof.

This is the tenth in a weekly series with BU Now that highlights Seniors’ sage advice on absolute must-dos in Boston. Looking for the ultimate list of things to experience before graduation? We’ve got you covered!

If I had to pick one thing for everyone to do during their time in Boston, I’d probably tell them to attend the South Boston Street Festival. It isn’t necessarily the most fun thing to do in the city, and it doesn’t carry the obligatory blood alcohol content level that the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade mandates (although you are certainly free to challenge that notion), but as an experience overall, it’s been one of the few that’s really stayed with me over the last four years.

Part of this is because of the random circumstances that surrounded my trip to the festival. I had no idea I’d be going to the festival when I went, and when I got there, I had no idea what to expect. My idea of Southie, founded mostly on crime films and Dennis Lehane novels, was a far cry from reality. And so when my traveling companion went off to interview people for an article for the Free Press, I meandered about on my own, taking in the event and finding that it was quite to my liking.

The festival itself isn’t anything out of the ordinary. There are street vendors, community groups looking for membership, food, drinks, and a stage for music and dancing. It stretches a few blocks of East Broadway and runs for a few hours in the afternoon. The food is acceptable street grub, sausages, sandwiches and other snacks(I couldn’t find a funnel cake to save my life, but perhaps I wasn’t looking hard enough), and Guinness is available at every street corner bar within eyesight. It’s a decent recipe for a easily enjoyable afternoon, but it becomes something more.

Thomas Park, Bringing The Noise to a Wandering Crowd. Photo by Sarah Sanders.

It ends up being the particulars of the area that make the festival so enjoyable. The people selling their paintings on the sidewalk who are more than willing to talk to you about their artistic war against the government. The toddlers in ‘Southie Pride’ shirts. The people watching from their porches, enjoying the weather and taking it all in. More than anything else, there is a strong sense of community from the street festival, and that’s what matters.

People are talking to one another, laughing and enjoying life together, and actually being sincere about it. This isn’t just small talk. These are people that know and care about one another. When Thomas Park (Southie’s finest classic rock cover band) plays “Sweet Home South Boston” and tweaks the lyrics to honor a fallen neighborhood hero, it isn’t cheesy, it actually means something. I, being a somewhat southern man, take my Skynyrd seriously, but I was won over by this rendition. I could tell the band and the audience meant every word of what they were singing and saying. It is an honesty and respect that isn’t easy to come by.

I was once told by a half drunk ex-Bruins player that the reason he loved Boston was because he felt that it was “the biggest small town” in the world. I liked that idea. That, more than anything, is the reason I’d go to the South Boston Street Festival. It gives us an idea of the meaning of a community that many of us (myself included) have never felt before. It also provides the chance to see Southie, an area of Boston that has been somewhat unfairly saddled with a bad reputation, as a real, living, pleasant place. A place where things may not always be great, but where the people know and care about one another, and where they feel things will be okay in the end because they’re a community that lives together. It’s something to see.

About David Braga

David Braga is a 2011 Film Student focusing on Film Studies and Screenwriting. In no particular order, his favorite films are: Trainspotting, Aliens, Breaking the Waves, School of Rock, Kill Bill, 2001, and Wayne's World 2.

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3 Comments on “Senior Bucket List: The South Boston Street Festival”

  1. David just seeing this now. Thanks for the kind words about our home town. Hopefully we will see you at the street festival this year, introduce your self and maybe sneak in a Guinness!
    The Thomas Park Band

  2. Thank you, I really appreciate your kind words for South Boston. It’s rare for me to read such a pleasant article about the place that I love so much. I feel like most “outsiders” do not comprehend the actual community inside of South Boston or what was South Boston for me. Thanks again, and I hope you go on to do great things.

  3. Good morning David, I was pleasantly surprised to find this blog. I was cruising through many and found you. I was, and have been a Vendor for the past five years at the Festival. I grew up in South Boston and have amazing and fond memories. One of 13 “Gill” children, living in the old colony project and have gone on to making my own memories with my 7 children. I have the great honor to have taken advantage of the wonderful evening programs out of High School at South Boston High (not my High, I went tto St. Augustines) Sewing which is what my business to this day. I am also part of the Farmers Market on West Broadway, every Monday from May through Thanksgiving week selling my wears. I love all you shared in this article since we see all this humanity in its wonder and greatfulness every Monday. Thank you for your insightfulness on a GOOD community, Enjoy your day, Mary

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