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Old Home Days of Williamsville returns Tuesday through Friday

Live music, food, games, beer tent, and more are back after missing last year due to COVID-19

Old Home Days
Old Home Days
WBEN/Mike Baggerman

WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Old Home Days of Williamsville returns this week for the first time since the pandemic prevented the popular weekly-festival from happening last year.

"We held out hope all year long that something positive was going to break and we were going to be able to do the event," Rich Galmarini from the Jolly Boys of Williamsville, the group organizing the event, said. "We continued to keep planning and planning. With the vaccination rates going up and the positive rate going down of people being infected with COVID, we kept plugging away and we finally got the green light from the Erie County Department of Health and when the governor lifted different restrictions."


The four-day event begins Tuesday and continues through Friday evening at Island Park in Williamsville. The event will feature food, carnival rides, a beer tent, plus live music each night. Thousands of people are expected to attend the festival.

Galmarini said planning for the event this year was cumbersome because of differing rules between Erie County and New York Health Departments. Once Governor Andrew Cuomo ended virtually all pandemic-related restrictions on June 23, the event could happen without any concerns.

Old Home Days not serves as a homecoming of sorts for those who have left the area, it's also one of the Jolly Boys of Williamsville's largest fundraising events. All proceeds from Old Home Days will go towards Roswell Park and Children's Hospital. The Jolly Boys of Williamsville has given more than $1 million to several different organization over the past 50 years.

Those who are unvaccinated are recommended to wear a mask. Hand sanitizer will be provided throughout Island Park.

Admission is free. Carnival rides cost $22 for a four-hour block or you can purchase tickets for each individual ride. Organizers will send out notifications about the status of the event using social media should rain pause the event.

The Erie County Department of Health will provide Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines for those eligible on Wednesday and Friday.

View the full schedule of events here.

Live music, food, games, beer tent, and more are back after missing last year due to COVID-19