Greenport’s Maritime Festival may be rescheduled after cancellation

Greenport’s annual Maritime Festival, which was canceled last weekend due to forecasts of high winds and heavy rain, may be rescheduled pending approval from the Village Board.

Diane Tucci, event coordinator at the East End Seaport Museum, which runs the festival, said in a phone interview Tuesday that the tentative new dates are Oct. 21 and 22.

“The museum as an organization, and myself, have definitely determined that we can logistically pull off a new date,” Ms. Tucci said. “Right now, it is in the hands of the Greenport Village [Board] and other officials just to get an official board vote … everybody is in favor, we just have to go through those official processes as well.”

Ms. Tucci has been working for the East End Seaport Museum and Marine Foundation organizing the festival for two years and has organized similar community events in the area, such as Riverhead’s Alive on 25 street festival. She added that the board needs to get approval from the state to close down the roads on those tentative dates.

“I wish it was as simple as just being like, ‘hey, okay, let’s just redo it.’ But we do have to go through that red tape … none of us foresee any reason why this won’t be a go once we just go through all those processes,” she added.

Village trustees have a meeting scheduled for this Thursday, Sept. 28, at 6 p.m.

Ms. Tucci added that organizers are working to bring back all of the activities that were originally scheduled for the Maritime Festival but much depends on availability.

“We hope that we can have the parade, but it may not be on the same level the parade would have been because … we already know a couple of people who just cannot make the new date. So we’re really going to try our hardest to maintain the integrity of the activities, including, hopefully, the kayak races and cardboard regatta,” she said. In the 34 years since the festival began, this is the first time the “rain or shine” event has been canceled due to weather.

The only other time the festival was called off was in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.