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Sag Harbor Express / Editorials / 2015298

A Time For Community

authorStaff Writer on Aug 23, 2022

As has been the case across the nation, with an already politically charged climate growing more intense over the last few years, causing deep divisions in American society, the Village of Sag Harbor has had its fair share of “us versus them” moments, with huge demographic shifts over the last decade accelerated by development pressures, Main Street evolving from mom-and-pop shops to high-end retail boutiques, and a brooding sense of vanishing old-school Sag Harbor values.

What ties many of us together despite our differences — from families who have been here for generations to those who moved more recently to the village and have invested energy and money in the institutions that support Sag Harbor — is a love for this very special place. It’s a village nestled on some of the most beautiful waterways the world has to offer, waterways rich in history and tradition.

That’s what will be celebrated across Sag Harbor in two weeks, with the annual Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce HarborFest.

The first HarborFest was held 59 years ago, when it was called the Old Whalers Festival, and, in 1963, the winners of the whaleboat races off Windmill Beach were greeted by John Steinbeck, who handed out the coveted Whalers Cup to the winning teams. The whaleboat races in early September — complete with a wood-and-plaster white whale that is held together with blood, sweat, tears and even some Budweiser, every year thanks to community volunteers — are one of Sag Harbor’s most endearing and beloved traditions. It’s an event that some have competed in for generations, and it draws hundreds to Long Wharf to watch as families and businesses fight for bragging rights, and the chance to carve their names into history. Steinbeck is still there in spirit if not in body.

The backdrop is pure Americana, from the Boy Scouts selling hot dogs and cold sodas from the same stand they have been using for decades, to the clam chowder contest, the live music, including performances by the Sag Harbor Community Band, and the East End Classic Boat Society members displaying the wooden boat they will auction off for the season. A Taste of Sag Harbor is on Long Wharf, and a farmers market down the street, with an arts & crafts fair in between. The festival this year will expand into the John Steinbeck Waterfront Park, where activities for children and more live music will be held.

As it has always been, HarborFest is a time for the Sag Harbor community to gather and put the summer season in the rear-view mirror while seeing friends who have been hibernating or working double-time during the summer season. It’s a time to focus on what we love about Sag Harbor.

The reality is, these are trying times, and the weight of the last several years is bearing down on many people. At the same time, the village is experiencing change in very dramatic and swift terms — there is no denying that what happens to the development of Sag Harbor’s downtown has the potential to forever change the village, for better or worse, and there is tremendous anxiety about that reality.

It is important that we all take time to reflect on why we came to Sag Harbor in the first place, and why families have worked to call the village home for generations — at least those lucky enough to make it work here.

HarborFest is a chance to celebrate this community, a chance to look back at the great history and traditions of a former whaling port that, yes, has morphed into a world-class, high-end resort community that is the envy of most waterfront villages.

It is also a time where we can come together, over a cold soda or a beer, and talk about history, talk about preservation, talk about the families that have sustained this place — just talk — and remember that we are still Sag Harbor and will be as long as those whaleboats hit the water each September season.

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