“Don’t eat the brown acid,” quipped Lane Steinberg, 50, to several dozen East Villagers — many of them children and young parents — watching his rock-infused salsa group Cracked Latin on Ninth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A on Saturday. An afternoon-long party, sponsored by the Ninth Street A-1 Block Association, helped local businesses like Whitman’s, Good Beer and Dorian Grey Gallery re-introduce themselves, and offered residents the chance to hawk their homemade crafts.

Bethany Whittelsey, 28, a Cincinnati native who’s been living on East Ninth Street for almost two years, sold an assortment of handmade signs with messages like: “Men are like roses, watch out for all the pricks.” For older vendors like Tommy Dziadual, 63, the block party offered a trip down memory lane. “I used to own a store here called Possession in the wild-west days of the 1970s,” said Mr. Dziadual. “Now I’m selling to my customers’ grandkids.”