A Rite of Springtime in Bedford: The Saint Patricks Carnival

If you live anywhere in or around Bedford Village you most certainly look forward to the week each May when the carnival rolls into town.

This year the annual St. Patricks carnival, held on the campus of St. Patricks School on Old Post Road in Bedford. The six-day festival or rides, games and food began on May 11 this year and will continue through Sunday.

Attendance swells to over  20,000 people each year, according to carnival organizers, with many local families making several visits over the course of the week.

"The carnival has become a community event," remarked Jim Alloy, who, along with his wife Bonnie, steers the committee which plans the event. "It is a rite of spring in Bedford."

The carnival, run by volunteers of the Saint Patricks parish, a community of about 1,400 registered families, is the biggest church fundraiser of the year. Funds raised support the parish and its religious education programs, serving children pre-K through eighth grade.

The carnival is now in its 35th year, and started out as a much smaller event but has expanded throughout the years, according to Jim Alloy.

Dick Stewart Amusements provides the rides, and Parish volunteers operate the food tent. A car is raffled off each year, and this year the car is a white BMW convertible.

Alloy said that the carnival is a unifying event for church volunteers, ranging from high school students to individuals in their eighties. In addition, St. Patricks has a sister parish in the south Bronx, St. Anthansias, and on the Saturday of the  carnival, two bus loads of children from that church are brought up to enjoy the event free of charge.

Check out the Patch gallery of photos from this week at the carnival.