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                                    Atlantic Antic 4:Avenue of Pride ExplodesWith Day of Celebrationcommunity and city-wide organizations, including the giant balloon parade (led by Carol Bellamy. President of the City council, carrying an %u201c 1 Love New York%u201d balloon), the Barber Shop Quartet Benevolent Association, the Carroll Dance Theatre (who later staged a performance of their popular %u201c A Wrinkle in Time,%u201d Irish bands, steel bands, a drum band, floats, and everyone from Mayor Ed Koch to big-footed and red-nosed clowns.%u2018 %u2018It%u2019s no rose bowl parade,%u201d commented one of the marchers. %u2018 %u2018But it%u2019s a lot more fun %u2014 %u2019cause if it was the rose bowl, they sure wouldn%u2019t let me in it.%u201d %u2014which was the general %u2018 %u2018down home-town%u201d feeling of the parade as well as the entire festival. (Packer%u2019s float took first place in the float competition.)A simple %u201c I%u2019m pleased%u201d came from a beaming Jyce Gibbs, coordinator of the celebration, as she sat at a table in theBY JEANNETTE WALLSYes, it was gigantic! It was also corybantic, consonantic, frantic and even elephant ic. But mostly it was delightfully frantic. It was the long awaited Atlantic Antic 4. the fourth annual eelebratin of Atlantic Avenue last Sunday, September 24. And it was bigger than ever.A crowd that was estimated at a whopping 850,000 at 3 p.m . Sunday afternnon flocked the Avenue%u2019s twelve blocks between Furman Street and Flatbush, under blue and sunny skies. Available merchandise ranged from Mexican sweaters to Austrian crystal and of course there were the typical %u201c fair%u201d goods like balloons and pinwheels. But the bulk characterized the flavor o f Atlantic Avenue: antiques, baskets, artwork, and of course, plenty of exotic food.%u201c This is a major eat-a-thon,%u201d laughed one visitor as he munched a funnel cake, alight, crispy batter fried in deep oil and coated with confectionary sugar.But to others it was something else: to some it was a runner%u2019s marathon, or a bike-a-thon, and still to others it was a dance-a-thon. And to just about everyone, it was a staggeringly big, barrel of fun street fair.A 20-mile bike race got the day started off bright and early, even if it was a little late, at 9 a.m. David Brooks, a Remsen Street resident who%u2019s just entered high school, nabbed first place, followed byJohn Yung and Francisco Vasquez, third.Then the crowds parted for the runners. Well over 300 of them bobbed and panted up and then back down the street, and they came in virtually every size, shape and age. (The winner of tghe maraghon has not yet been determined.)Noon saw the passing of the Antic parade. It was a procession of some 50Atlantic Gardens housing conversion for %u201c The Night of the Phoenixes,%u201d a wrap-up party for the festival. %u201c It all went beautifully,%u201d she smiled the day after. %u201c It went as well as I had hoped, even better.%u201dThis will be her %u201c Swan song,%u201d Gibbs said. Despite all the fulfillment she received, Gibbs has worked with the fair several times and she says that this will be her last.The celebration lasted well past 6 p.m. and later, with sleepy kids and still excited revelers trailing the street well after dark%u2014one group of energetic vendors even set up a barbeque and had a cook out on the sidewalk.The Atlantic Antic is justifiably known among Brooklyn Street fairs as the %u201c Grand Pappy%u201d of them all. Congrats, Antic, you lived up to your reputation once again.(Michael Cuiccio Photos)Page 18, THE PHOENIX, September 28,1978
                                
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