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SUMMER SPECIAL! Belvy Klein, Co-Founder of Riis Park Beach Bazaar and Brooklyn Night Bazaar, steps on to the New York Launch Pod to discuss what it’s like to bring music, food, drink, vendors, and fun to the beach and at its famous night market.
After winning a request for proposal (RFP) late spring of 2015, Belvy Klein and his co-founder Aaron Broudo did not have a lot of time to invigorate the sleepy Rockaway Beach with life. But armed with the out-of-the-box thinking that Brooklyn Bazaar LLC, the parent company, is known for, Belvy and Aaron were able to transform Riis Park into a tourist destination that caught the eye of the New York Post as the number one item on its summer bucket list and the second best beach in America as rated by Yahoo! Travel.
Rather than selling traditional food on the beach, Riis Park Beach Bazaar draws in visitors with an exciting mix of local food, vendors, free live music, and programming on a daily basis. With a unique location that captures the benefits of a beautiful beach and the vistas of Manhattan, New Yorkers have been flocking by car, bus, train, ferry, and bicycle. The result for the first season of the Riis Park Beach Bazaar was a 140% increase in attendance over the previous year.
Belvy also talks about the forthcoming return of the Brooklyn Bazaar to the former Polonaise Terrace and the many exciting new features that his company is bringing to the former wedding venue. After starting at the DeKalb Market in Downtown Brooklyn and moving to Williamsburg then to Greenpoint this will be the fourth iteration of the popular Night Bazaar that utilizes the company’s recipe of live music, food, drink, vendors, and fun. In the episode, Belvy also talks about how the company has grown, how the Bazaar has been a springboard for its vendors, what it is like to be an independent concert venue in New York City and what it was like to lose the former space on Banker Street to BMW.
Listen to the episode to get an inside look at what it is like to do business at the beach with the unpredictability of mother nature, and how Riis Park Beach Bazaar was able to gain the support of the local community by having a year round presence, and hear Belvy address criticism that his company is gentrifying the beach.
Transcript of the episode available here: http://nylaun.ch/rpbazaarTR
More on Riis Park Beach Bazaar and Brooklyn Bazaar: http://riisparkbeachbazaar.com/ http://bkbazaar.com/
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