Chloe Kohl, 8, and Nolan Kohl, 5, get their caricatures painted by Joe Ferris at the Bloomingdale Block Party last year. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

BLOOMINGDALE — The Bloomingdale Block Party returns for a fourth year on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Bloomingdale Youth Field behind the fire department building.

The Block Party will feature booths from local non-profit organizations and craftsmen as well as live music by Frankie and the Moonlighters and an open mic. The event serves as a fundraiser for the St. Armand Youth Task Force, a non-profit organization that supports youth sports and other children’s programs in the town of St. Armand.

The day will kick off at 11 a.m. with carnival games and food, which will continue until 5 p.m. The beer tent and pull tabs will open at the same time and last until 8 p.m. The first open mic period will be from 12 to 1:30 p.m., coinciding with the start of the cornhole tournament, which will be $40 per person. Frankie and the Moonlighters will play from 2 to 4:30 p.m. A deer pong tournament, which will be an alcohol free competition involving throwing ping pong balls into cups nestled in the antlers of a plastic deer head, starts at 2 p.m. and will be $10 per team. A golf pong tournament starts at 4 p.m. and will be $10 per team. The second open mic periods begins at 5:30 p.m. and goes until 7:30 p.m. The festivities will also include a dunking booth, stilt walkers, face painting, airbrush tattoos, Caricature Artist Joe Ferris, a bouncy house, a new free scavenger hunt with prizes, funnel cake, lemonade and numerous other games and activities.

St. Armand Town Supervisor Davina Thurston, speaking as president of the St. Armand Youth Task Force, said the non-profit organizations’ vendor booths at the event will have food and games so that the organizations can make generate revenue from their participation. Vendors will include the Saranac Lake Volunteer Rescue Squad, the Saranac Lake Moose Lodge and the Saranac Lake Rotary Club. This year, between non-profits and vendors, there are going to be 54 booths at the event. The block party’s first year, Thurston said there were around 18 booths.

The event is being funded by Essex County, with local businesses and organizations sponsoring aspects of the event.

The St. Armand Youth Task Force put on the first block party in 2021, during the coronavirus pandemic, as a replacement for the large community Field Day events that the Bloomingdale Volunteer Fire Department held in years past. Due to a shortage of volunteers, the fire department could no longer handle hosting the event, so the youth task force created the block party as a way to keep the festivities going in Bloomingdale. By encouraging participation from non-profits and vendors, Thurston said they are able to “spread the work (of putting on the event) out,” making it easier to host such a large festival.

Thurston said that the event had a “huge” significance for the community. Around 600 people showed up last year.

“Everything that I’ve heard about the block party has been really positive,” she said. “People are really glad to see this reminiscent of the Field Days back in its heyday. … It’s really important that this is a fun get-together for community members.”

Other youth task force projects include their recent donation of $10,000 to the Town of St. Armand to purchase a playground pirate ship for the Bloomingdale Youth Field, contributing to a performance stage being built on the youth field and plans for expanding the Bloomingdale Youth Building.

Thurston wanted to make sure attendees are aware that dogs are not permitted on the youth field and should be left at home.

It will be difficult for attendees to find parking near the youth field if a lot of people show up, so community members who live near the field are encouraged to walk to the event.