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Kevin Bacon Show Turns Yonkers Park Into Mardi Gras

YONKERS, N.Y. — No matter what the calendar says, it was Mardi Gras this week in Yonkers' Van Der Donck Park.

Production crews for "The Following" turned Yonkers' Van Der Donck Park into a Mardi Gras carnival.

Production crews for "The Following" turned Yonkers' Van Der Donck Park into a Mardi Gras carnival.

Photo Credit: Matt Bultman
Production crews for "The Following" turned Yonkers' Van Der Donck Park into a Mardi Gras carnival.

Production crews for "The Following" turned Yonkers' Van Der Donck Park into a Mardi Gras carnival.

Photo Credit: Matt Bultman

Production crews for the Fox television show “The Following,” starring actor Kevin Bacon, turned the downtown park into a carnival Wednesday and Thursday.

A ferris wheel sat in the middle of Dock Street along with concession stands lined with colorful beads. Inside Van Der Donck Park, a stage stood next to beer and margarita tents while purple, green and yellow banners welcomed visitors to “Mardi Gras Fest.”

Crews shot scenes in the park Wednesday night and were expected to resume filming after dark Thursday.

Despite the elaborate setup, Van Der Donck Park’s carnival scene is expected to play a small role in the show, with just a couple minutes of air time.

The park scenes were part of a two-week filming session in Yonkers, a production crew member said Thursday. Already, the show has shot scenes in the ninth floor of a waterfront apartment and turned a portion of the Riverfront Library into an FBI office.

On Thursday afternoon, the empty Mardi Gras carnival near the park’s recently daylighted river drew confused looks from passersby.

“I wasn’t sure what was going on,” William Petty said after a security guard explained the story to him. “This is a pretty cool setup though. If it was real, I’d go.”

Bob Walters said he planned to shoot some pictures of the scene and marveled at the effects of daylighting the Saw Mill River has had on downtown Yonkers.

“Without that they wouldn’t be shooting this scene here,” he said. “It’s pretty neat.”

While Bacon may live in Manhattan, he has been spending a lot of time in Yonkers lately. In October, the actor spent a day filming scenes for “The Following” in the Buena Vista Avenue parking garage.  In August, the crew also shot film at three separate locations in Bronxville.

In the show, which premieres Jan. 21, Bacon plays a former FBI agent who is asked to come back and help find a serial killer who has escaped from prison.

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