Get a Taste of the Carnival in Spencerport This Weekend

Spencerport, Rochester, NY – For those still wanting a taste of summer, Carnival Eats Rochester has set up in Spencerport this weekend with all your favorites: cotton candy, fried dough, gyros, and more.

While there are no games, there are still prizes. And while there are no rides, the Glacier Ridge Sports Park parking lot in Spencerport still smelled and looked like a carnival thanks to all the vendors.

“It feels good, but I do miss the rides. I do miss that, but it does feel good to be out here and see all the colors, and all the food,” Greece resident Trenette Loyd said.

Jeff Brick has been coming to work the Lilac Festival in Rochester every year for decades. This year would have been his 23rd.

“It’s sad not being able to be a part of the Lilac Festival this year,” Brick said. “We love coming to Rochester and working the event.”

Without festivals and carnivals across the state this summer, things have been difficult for his stand of popular meats.

“It’s astronomical. I can’t even compare it. We’re working for a small percentage of what we normally do,” Brick said.

So, he’s glad to be back in the Rochester area, where he says the community is so welcoming.

“Maybe some of them know us from Lilac, maybe some of them don’t and we’re making new customers. So happy to be here,” Brick said.

Missing the carnival experience this summer? You can get your fill at the Glacier Ridge Sports Park in Spencerport (kind of)! With a bunch of different traditional food stalls, it certainly smells like a carnival! @SPECNewsROC pic.twitter.com/3LrQjP7knf

— Andrew Freeman (@AFreemanNews) August 21, 2020

In fact, Friday would’ve been the kick off of the New York State Fair.

“That’s our best event. So thank God we’re working today, it takes away a little of the pain of not being able to work at the state fair,” Brick said.

And some returning customers are glad to have him back too.

“I’ve had the sausage before. I don’t know if I’ve had the gyros before,” Greece resident Paul Conner said. “It’s good, very good.”

He says he feels for the vendors like Jeff, and hopes events like this continue.

“This is what the count on, the summertime. I mean the Hilton Fest has been cancelled, I don’t know how these people are going to survive. It’s a shame they had to cancel everything,” Conner said.

And others wonder if the community continues being responsible, can this be the new normal?

“They need to have something like this every weekend, something just to get out and do something. Because it does get boring,” Loyd said.

Carnival Eats will be set up through the weekend, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.