May 04, 2010 12:00PM EDT

Tribeca Family Festival and ESPN Sports Day

This past Saturday (May 1), the weather was perfect and streets were packed for Tribeca's Family Festival and ESPN Sports Day throughout the streets of Tribeca. The sound of music, cheering, and laughter led people straight from the subway to the site where booths were set up along the street with all kinds of fun activities for kids, parents, and anyone who wanted to partake. Performances peppered the crowds and lines formed in front of each unique activity.

The face painting booths were flooded with kids and parents watching artists decorate faces with airbrush paint, glitter, and rhinestones. Tribeca also had multiple photo opps set up for Festivalgoers. AT&T had a booth where people could take a picture in front of a green screen and pick their favorite NYC backdrop and have the picture emailed to them. Polaroid gave free Polaroids in front of a Tribeca Film Festival backdrop, creating red carpet moments, and Caesar's Palace had people dressed in Roman attire that families could take pictures with… all for free!

The streets were full of music shows, mascots, cartoon characters, and all kinds of interesting acts. Radio Disney had kids pick their favorite song and sing onstage, a band on stilts waltzed through crowds, and break-dancers performed on the corner.

Favorites included: hair painting, the cardboard castle, and the arts and crafts table. Kids could have their hair sprayed in any assortment of colors, and they loved it so much that the line went down the street. For people who wanted to kick back and get out of the sun for a while, BMCC's stage and theatres had choral performances, puppetry, marionettes, ballet, and workshops. Tribeca/ESPN brought Dave Voelker's BMX Stunt Show to the streets, complete with a halfpipe for bikers to show their moves on.

The sun, the food, the music, the shows, and so many happy faces made the Tribeca Family Festival/ESPN Sports Day the place to be on a perfect New York Saturday afternoon.