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Spaghetti-Eating Contest and M. Wells' Oysters Coming to LIC Block Party

 The block party will include  a raw bar by M. Wells.
The block party will include a raw bar by M. Wells.
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Janet Upadhye/DNAinfo

HUNTERS POINT — Celebrate the return of warm weather next week at Long Island City's annual spring block party, featuring raw oysters and spaghetti and gelato-eating contests.

Long Island City Partnership is throwing its second LIC Springs! block party on Vernon Boulevard May 9, offering food from local restaurants and activities hosted by neighborhood businesses and cultural institutions like MoMA PS1, The Noguchi Museum and the Museum of the Moving Image.

Italian eatery Manducatis Rustica will hold spaghetti and gelato-eating competitions for both kids and adults, and M. Wells — the team behind foodie-havens M. Wells Dinette and M. Wells Steakhouse — will have a pop-up raw bar with clams and freshly-shucked oysters. 

Visitors can also practice archery with sports center Indoor Extreme Sports, or work out in a group fitness session with local gym CrossFit Gantry. Dancers from McManus School of Irish Dance will perform at Woodbines pub, and there will also be an act by Circus Warehouse performers.

In addition, the Long Island City YMCA will be previewing fitness programs that will be offered this summer at Gantry Plaza State Park and in the plaza under the 40th Street 7 train station in Sunnyside.

The festival runs from 12 to 5 p.m. on Vernon Boulevard, which will be closed to traffic between 50th and 46th avenues as part of the Department of Transportation's "Weekend Walks" program.

More information can be found at LIC Partnership's website.