Water Street Market in downtown New Paltz is bursting with free community events, including weekly outdoor movie nights, live concerts and morning story hours for pre-school children.

The fourth year of summer movies at Water Street has already kicked off with two wildly attended films -- the 1979 cycling classic “Breaking Away” and “Gasland,” a documentary on the negative personal and environmental impacts of hydrofracking in Pennsylvania.

“We had more than 200 people attend our showing of ‘Breaking Away,’” reported Theresa Fall, the community and events coordinator for Water Street Market. “They were all cheering and screaming.”

The movies are free and open to the public throughout the summer on Monday nights beginning at 9 p.m. in the open courtyard with complementary popcorn.

The Monday night series runs through Aug. 29. Scheduled films include “Willow,” “Seraphine,” “The Gods Must Be Crazy” and “In Search of Bobby Fischer,” to name a few.

In fact, Water Street Market has installed three new chess tables, making the airing of the boy-chess-wonder film even more exciting.

A second movie series takes place every Sunday in July at 9 p.m. and is focused on documentary films that “support sustainability,” Fall said. She noted that they have a film scheduled that deals with the polluting of the Hudson River, as well as “The Cove,” about the dolphin industry in Japan.

“We want to promote sustainability through our documentary films, but in a way that inspires people to take action, and have a voice and get inspired, not just depressed,” she said.

The Monday night series ends with the fourth annual amateur film competition, in which various documentaries whose theme is as broad and rich as “A Taste of the Hudson Valley” are judged. The films must be ten minutes or less and somehow relate to the Hudson Valley. The winners receive gift certificates to local businesses.

For more information on how to enter or to get more detailed information on all events log onto www.waterstreetmarket.com.

Not only is Water Street Market offering free movie nights, but they are also sponsoring live music every Thursday night at 7 p.m.

“We used to hold the live music and concerts at 5 p.m. but with the change in time, we’ve realized how much more popular it has become,” Fall noted. “The 5 p.m. concerts were good, but they really left out a lot of people who were not yet home from work, who had children that were coming home from various activities that they needed to feed and chill with … So the 7 p.m. slot has become increasingly more popular and one of our main goals is to support local musicians and bands and we have a great line-up.”

Part of the line-up includes “The Virginia Wolves,” “Rhett Miller,” “Ratboy” and “Mark and Adam,” just to name a few.

For the little ones there is also a free story hour every Monday morning throughout the summer at 10:30 a.m. in the courtyard, geared towards pre-schoolers.

Asked what the ultimate goal was to provide and promote these free public films and musical events and story hours, Fall paused for a moment.

“Our goal is to help support a sustainable community, provide education and meaning to our community, to get together, to entertain and to gather in a safe, beautiful, local haven where great films, music, local businesses, children, artists, residents are all celebrated and filled with joy and purpose.”

Because all events are outdoors, if it’s raining, the film or music events are cancelled. If it’s not so certain, log onto the website or call Fall at 401-4499.