College Park Day filled the College Park Aviation Museum and airport grounds from noon to 6 p.m. on Oct. 18 with live music, children’s activities, and food and craft vendors as families moved between stages, inflatables and a line of aviation displays.
“This is an event that we have been organizing since 2009, so this is the 15th-year celebration,” Mayor Fazlul Kabir said. The festival, he said, was created “to bring the community together in one place— ur longtime residents, our student community, our business community, and people of different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different nationalities and everything.”
Kabir noted the festival has grown with the budget.
“We started with only about a $500 budget [in 2009]; I think now we have a $55,000 budget,” he said, adding that the city runs about 20 events a year to help neighbors connect.
Music acts rotated on outdoor stages through the six-hour program, drawing lawn-chair crowds and families that drifted in and out of food lines and kids’ areas. Vendors served festival staples—ice cream and shaved ice, kettle corn and pastries, tacos, seafood rolls and barbecue—while craft sellers worked under pop-up tents.
A Maryland State Police helicopter on display quickly became a crowded stop for photos and questions. The pilot in command, Claude Boushey, said the police presence was about meeting visitors and explaining what the agency does for Marylanders. .
“People have questions about the helicopter,” Boushey said. “This is a state government helicopter, so it’s an asset for everybody in the state of Maryland to use. Our primary mission is to fly patients to the hospital. We also do medevacs, search and rescue, and law enforcement, but flying patients is our main focus.”
Tara McNamara, 41, a College Park resident, paused with her daughter and son to inspect the aircraft as children peppered Boushey with questions. Boushey, who said he has flown for 31 years—17 with the State Police and 14 in the Army—added that walking kids through the cockpit is always fun, but “you’ve got to kind of dumb it down a little bit.”
Afterward, McNamara guided her children to the inflatable slide and cheered from the fence line as her 4-year-old daughter hesitated at the top, and then slid down.
“So far, it’s a fun time,” McNamara said. “It’s nice to see all of the different community people here and good, like, healthy community fun for the kids. Events like this should happen every now and then … even just to be able to see your neighbors doing something fun instead of just taking out the trash or bringing groceries.”
Vendor tents drew steady traffic as the day progressed.
Painter Frankie Alika displayed canvases inspired by trips to Georgia and a rainy first visit to New York.
“Everywhere I go, I try to bring out something that I saw over there,” Alika said. “Even if I’m looking at you, I’m having something else playing in my mind to paint.”
Murali Nageswara, who is from India and lives in College Park, brought his three children to Alika’s table. The kids pointed out pieces while Alika explained the scenes and symbols.
A steady stream of families stopped at a table offering free children’s books stocked by a city initiative.
“We let kids self-select what they read,” said Carolyn Bernache, chair of the College Park Education Advisory Committee. “To see that children have access to a book, because reading is so fundamental to their future.”
Community events, she added, “let people meet in a very inviting and engaging way.”
Elsewhere, children gathered at tables to decorate mini pumpkins, swapping markers and stickers as volunteers from the College Park Arts Exchange guided their designs.
“It’s really nice, the weather’s good, the music’s nice,” said Brendan Davis, 26, a volunteer with the arts exchange. “I’m really happy to see all these kids getting out and about, enjoying themselves.”