Woodbury Volunteer Fire Dept Annual Carnival

WOODBURY, CT – Rides, games, food, raffle prizes, and good cheer are all available from Thursday at 6pm through Saturday night August 29, 30, 31 at the Woodbury Volunteer Fire Department’s annual carnival in Hollow Park.

The usual spectacular fireworks display will close the carnival on Saturday night at 10p following the final raffle draw. In one form or another, the carnival dates back nearly 100 years to the department’s founding. The Hollow Park, off route 6 in the center of Woodbury, has been its home for nearly a quarter century.

Among the many prizes are two gourmet dinners. One is at John’s Café in Woodbury donated by John Deschino of Tegeler Insurance, Southbury, for the winner and family or friends. The other is a five-course dinner cooked and served by firefighters at the Department headquarters with home limo pickup for the winner and guests in a firetruck.

For those who want to eat during the carnival, the department will offer steak sandwiches, burgers, dogs, french fries, a vegetarian firehouse chili, and its signature sandwich: the ‘Northey.’ The Northey was created in the department kitchen one night by former Woodbury Fire Lt. Keith Northey who was hungry one night after a blaze. It went public at an earlier carnival and has been wildly popular ever since as a hybrid cheeseburger piled with fried onions and green peppers all between two slabs of toast.

Raffle tickets are $1 each for prizes offered by local merchants and $10 each for the personalized fire department dinner party. Tickets are on sale around town and the department beforehand as well as at the carnival. Profits from the raffles are used to by firefighting equipment not covered in the town budget.

“It’s a grand community event,” says Fire Chief Janet B. Morgan. “We all get to celebrate the end of summer, the start of a new school year, and the department’s presence as an essential and helpful town service.”