Slideshow: Hastings' Crowds Enchanted by Mid-Summer Magic

*Scroll down for photo slideshow. 

It was a balmy Friday evening in Hastings, and the enthusiasm felt along Warburton Ave was palpable. Locals were eagerly gearing up for a mystical night of astounding feats. Mid-Summer Magic attracted an impressive turnout of locals of all ages: from animated children to teens and adults, eager to blow off some steam from their hectic work week. Even local seniors came to see the impressive line-up of entertainers. 

Before the main show, performers--including a fortune-teller, a fire-eater, a silhouette artist--claimed the sidewalks as locals watched and munched on goodies bought from vendors on the street.  

Although Trustee Meg Walker is typically the organizer of Friday Night Live events, "Vanishing" Vinny DePonto, a magician and Dobbs Ferry resident, temporarily took over the reigns as guest producer of "Midsummer Magic".

Mario the Magician, a friend of "Vanishing" Vinny, launched the evening's pre- show with his whimsical children's magic tricks. Mario, who also performs magic parties for adults, published a children's magic card trick book for Barnes and Noble in 2008, along with his wife Katie.

"I think this is the first time I've seen an event that's so carnival themed," Mario said. "It's a very special evening; the weather's perfect and ithere's a lot of stuff going on."

Later, Dan Elias's Sephardic music band, "The Elias Ladino Ensemble" effectively set the mood , playing the soulful music of the Spanish-Jewish Diaspora.

The main show began at 7:30, in front of the VFW building. Fire-eater, Jim Kroener got everything started by fearlessly swallowing flames. Kroener, who is a college student, has been doing magic for most of his life and learned fire eating at the Coney Island Sideshow School.

The Dinofrio Dance Company, headed by Taylor Dinofrio, enchanted the audience with a performance of their meticulously choreographed routine.

Next to perform was Chris Ruggiero, who seamlessly fuses juggling, magic and humor into his act. Ruggiero mesmerized the crowd by simultaneously riding a unicycle while juggling flaming torches.

"I wasn't quite sure what to expect tonight, because I came up from Pennsylvania, but it was a lot of fun," Ruggiero said. "I wasn't expecting this many people to come and have such a great response; I'm just doing a street show and I'm getting a pretty big crowd, so it's really good."

Patrick Terry, who is both a magician and mind reader, took the stage next. Terry, who recently graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, has been performing as a magician since the was 12.

Stuart Palm, with his flawlessly curled moustache, engaged the crowd with a theatrical brand of magic that integrates elements of science and psychology into the performance. Bandaging his eyes with black duct tape, Palm drew a "third eye" with a white marker on the tape and asked volunteers from the audience to draw pictures. Palm then proceeded accurately to guess what each participant had drawn--leaving everyone in the audience flabbergasted.

"It was good to see everybody come out and see live entertainment; get them away from their televisions," Palm said. "And for me, tt's always a good to get experience."

The grand finale of the evening was "Vanishing" Vinny DePonto's performance. Vinny captivated the audience with his sleight of hand maneuvers, uncanny mind-reading, and of course, as his name implies, making stuff vanish. The climactic event of his performance, and of the whole evening for that matter, was "The mystery of the floating table" How he made a table float is anyone's guess, really.

In closing, DePonto spoke about his mentor, Hastings' own magician, Pino Gareri, who died in 2006. Mid-Summer Magic was a tribute to Gareri.

"A few stores down that way, is where I grew up learning magic; there was a man named Pino--an Italian man who taught me my magic,"  DePonto said. "Every Saturday I would go in and he would show me some tricks. Although Pino isn't with us any more, I know he would be proud to see you all here. This would not be possible without all of you."