Festival season in full swing across Western New York

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The summer festival season in Western New York is in full swing, with a couple of prominent local festivals continuing this week and into the weekend.

Old Home Days in Williamsville kicked off Tuesday, beginning the four-day festival to celebrate the community with rides, games, food and entertainment at Island Park. The event every year is hosted by the "Jolly Boys", a non-profit service organization comprised of active community- minded people committed to serving the community through volunteerism and fundraising.

Tuesday's festivities kicked off with their parade, as well as a performance from the local band Nerds Gone Wild.

"We had a lot of fun, it was really good. A little bit of sprinkles, but it didn't dissuade us," said Rich Galmarini during an appearance with WBEN on Wednesday morning.

The good news for Old Home Days, as well as other festivals heading into the weekend locally, is the weather is looking pristine with conditions remaining dry and comfortable.

Old Home Days is a festival with plenty of activities, as well as food available for kids and families of all ages.

"We do have our rides from Hammerl Amusement, and we have a lot of food, a variety of food," Galmarini said with Brian Mazurowski and Susan Rose. "We have Carrubba's Chicken, who had won the Rookie of the Year at the Taste of Buffalo, we've got Brisket Love, who's always a great specialty to stop by and have. Of course popcorn and hotdogs, peanuts, pizza, and fried dough."

On top of that, there's also plenty of music and entertainment options for festivalgoers to enjoy every night.

"It is a very big part of it," Galmarini said. "We're very excited about our band lineup this year. "We had the Nerds last night. [Wednesday] is West of the Mark, tomorrow on Thursday is Hit 'N Run and Friday is Flipside."

Over the years, Old Home Days has also become a great environment for a number of family and school reunions to take place.

"I just was communicating with my wife and a few of her friends from out-of-town are all planning to get together for their friendly reunions, and a lot of class reunions take place under the tent on the island," Galmarini noted.

And every year, Old Home Days is the largest fundraising event for the Jolly Boys, who support a number of different initiatives and organizations in both Amherst and Williamsville.

"We don't count the COVID year in there, but this is the 46th annual Old Home Days. We have given approximately close to $2 million to the youth, and other ventures in the Williamsville/Amherst area. We give money to Children's Hospital, Kids Escaping Drugs and many other different areas," Galmarini said.

Then in the Twin Cities of Tonawanda, Canal Fest continues on this week with fun events and other activities for families and residents to enjoy on both sides of the Erie Canal.

Festivities got started this past Sunday, with Tuesday night seeing the Canal Fest parade, with several people lining the streets for one of the longest parades for an outdoor festival in Western New York. And there's still plenty of fun activities set to take place over the course of the next several days in the Tonawandas.

"Today's our Car Cruise, so we're really hoping the skies part early so that the guys who have all the classic cars and the really nice vehicles, they want to bring them out on dry roads and have a great night for the festival to happen," said Deb Darling, recording secretary for Canal Fest.

The Car Cruise will take place on both sides of the Erie Canal, on Main Street in Tonawanda and going across the Renaissance Bridge to Webster Street in North Tonawanda.

"It's bringing together two municipalities, two communities in one event," said Darling with Brian Mazurowski and Susan Rose on WBEN. "We usually bring in about 300 cars, about 150 on each side. That's quite the task to get that all lined up and parked in a reasonable fashion to get everybody ready to be able to set up so that the general public can come and enjoy all their beautiful cars and vehicles."

And over the next several days, the activities for residents and others to enjoy don't stop there.

"[Thursday] night we have a Diaper Derby, where babies actually race and little race courses. They can't walk, they have to crawl," Darling said. "I think we have about 30 babies that will be participating in that, it's kind of crazy and a unique event. Much efforts that go into the people that organize that.

"Then on Friday night, we have our Motorcycle Cruise, and we bring in well over 1,000 motorcycles that line Webster Street. We have a separate stage up in front of the Riviera Theatre that we have a blues band coming in. There's vendors and a separate beer tent that night, along with all the other festivities that happen here at Canal Fest."

Saturday kicks off the two-day Arts and Crafts Show that is always a popular event for many during Canal Fest.

In addition, Saturday will provide one of the more intriguing events during Canal Fest with the SIKA Cup boat race.

"All week long, teams of two people sign up to build an actual boat on the site of Canal Fest, we supply all the materials. And it can only be held together by the SIKA Cup product, which is like a liquid adhesive, it's marine grade. They build all these boats, they can't bring in any plans or anything. They have to build it on site with what we supply to them," Darling detailed. "And then they put it in the water on Saturday. Some of them float, some of them don't. It's really kind of a fun event to watch. And at the very end, all the participants that are still able to float in the water, they go into the race, and the object of that is to be the last boat afloat. So there's much mayhem and fun festivities and activities that happen amongst the boaters to try to sink one another, it's quite an event."

Then on Sunday, Canal Fest will close with its fireworks on the Renaissance Bridge, right over the Erie Canal.

And very much like Old Home Days in Williamsville, Darling has noticed many people planning family gatherings and other events that revolve around Canal Fest in both Tonawanda and North Tonawanda .

"Not only their vacations, but their family reunions, they plan their high school reunions. In some cases, we've even had people plan their weddings for this weekend, because people come from out-of-town and then they stay for the Canal Fest, because they are from the area and they reunite with family members," Darling noted. "It's huge for not only this community, but the people that used to live in this community and come back."