Greenport Maritime Festival rescheduled due to potential nor'easter
The Greenport Maritime Festival is rescheduled to Oct. 16-18 due to a possible nor’easter. Credit: East End Seaport Museum/Joe Maddalone
This weekend’s Greenport Maritime Festival has been postponed to Oct. 16 through 18 due to inclement weather that forecasters said could develop into a nor’easter.
"Maritime has always been about our relationship with the water and part of that is respecting the conditions around us," festival organizers said in a statement posted to Instagram on Monday. "Making this decision now gives our residents, businesses, vendors, sponsors, volunteers, visitors and participating organizations time to adjust while allowing us to preserve the full festival weekend."
A Greenport tradition for 35 years, the Maritime Festival began as celebration of the waterfront town’s roots in fishing and shipbuilding. This year’s events will include a fishing derby, Cardboard Boat Regatta, pie-eating contest, oyster-shucking contest and a live music performance by North Fork locals The Mudflats. One new event, titled Greenport Community Rowing, offers attendees a quick lesson in rowing followed by an hour of crewing on a wooden boat under an experienced coxswain.
The festival’s postponement comes after last year’s dispute between the East End Seaport Museum, which sponsors the event but attempted to cancel it for this year, and the Greenport Business Improvement District, which lobbied to keep it. At the time, the museum said it wanted time to modernize its exhibits and expand its programming, but local business owners countered that the festival had become a valuable economic engine and point of pride for Greenport.
"We’ll be using this extra time to reconfirm programming, share more stories from the incredible people and organizations behind Maritime, and welcome additional businesses, sponsors, vendors, volunteers and community partners," according to the festival’s statement.
The decision to postpone was made Monday morning, according to a statement from the Greenport Business Owners Alliance, which said it consulted with the Village of Greenport, the Southold Town Police Department, festival partners and festival organizers and decided that “moving the festival now is the most thoughtful course given the developing weather forecast.”
The festival’s new dates coincide with the annual Oyster Fest in Oyster Bay, which this year takes place Oct. 17 and 18. The Village of Greenport did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the conflicting events.
National Weather Service forecasters tracking the weekend's storm said to expect moderate flooding, rain and beach erosion on Long Island.
