ROXBURY — Labor Day weekend in Roxbury reached its traditional crescendo Sunday evening as neighbors and friends gathered at Kirkside Park for an evening of food, games, dancing and fireworks, bringing one of the summer’s final big community celebrations to a joyful close.
Now in its sixth year, the Roxbury Community Potluck has become a late-summer tradition organized by Friends of Roxbury members Judith Maguire and Robin Factor. Under pleasant skies, more generations of families and friends arrived throughout the evening, filling the park while children ran across the open field and adults settled in to catch up with neighbors.
The tables beneath the pavilion quickly became an attraction of their own, filled with homemade dishes reflecting the diversity of the people who call the area home. “Someone said to me, ‘This is like an ethnic smorgasbord,’” Maguire said, noting Filipino, Indian and other international dishes among the evening’s offerings.
While Friends of Roxbury organizes events throughout the year to support organizations including the fire department, library and food pantry, Factor said the Labor Day gathering has a deliberately different purpose. “This is just pure fun,” she said. “There’s no agenda except community. And I think that’s wonderful.”
There is, however, one small environmental agenda. Since the event began, organizers have encouraged guests to bring reusable plates, silverware and cups and take them home afterward. Maguire said the practice helps prevent the celebration from generating bags of unnecessary trash.
Music soon took over the pavilion as the Oneonta-based Mopar Cans delivered a lively set of rockabilly music. The three-piece band had performed at the potluck several years earlier, and Maguire and Factor were pleased to welcome them back. As dinner wound down, children and adults moved onto the dance floor while games and activities continued around the park.
The celebration culminated after darkness fell with a fireworks display organized by Glenn Faulkner. Bursts of color illuminated the cloudy sky above Kirkside Park, with flashes reflecting from the stream alongside the soccer field as friends and families watched together.
For Factor, that uncomplicated opportunity to gather is what continues to make the evening special. “We get a lot of people who come out from the community, and the food is always outstanding,” she said. “It’s just a lot of fun.”
After a summer packed with festivals, concerts and celebrations across Delaware County, Roxbury ended Labor Day weekend with something simpler: neighbors sharing food, music and one another’s company.
