A Sag Harbor Institution: Talking HarborFest With Ellen Dioguardi

Since 1963, HarborFest may have evolved in name, size and scope, but at its core, the Sag Harbor institution has remained the same.

The annual festival celebrating the maritime history of Sag Harbor will draw hundreds of locals and visitors alike on Saturday, September 10, and Sunday, September 11, to Long Wharf, Marine Park and John Steinbeck Waterfront Park, where more than 50 vendors will sell their wares, local restaurants will compete for the best clam chowder title, and dozens of whaleboats will race across the bay, all with their eyes on the prize.

Ahead of this year’s festivities, Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce President Ellen Dioguardi caught up with The Express News Group, where she works as director of events, on what to expect from HarborFest and why it remains a beloved tradition.

How are you feeling about this year’s HarborFest?

I’m enthusiastic, I’m looking forward to it. There’s just a lot of moving parts. It’s a fairly big event, and it’s done by a very small number of volunteers. It’s a lot, but it always feels worth it in the end. I think anyone who’s ever put the time in — and this is my first year putting this kind of time in — to this event over the years is gratified seeing how it goes off and how much everybody in Sag Harbor and visitors who come love it.

Are there any changes to the festival this year?

What we are working on doing is getting some of the children’s activities to take place in Steinbeck Park and also the Saturday night concert with Gene Casey and the Lone Sharks at 5 p.m. and the Hoodoo Loungers at 7 p.m. is going to be in Steinbeck Park, as well. I think that is a great space for that and it just frees up room on Long Wharf for a little bit more of a crowd.

We also want to try to create a food court at the end — put most of the food vendors toward the end — and have more picnic tables for people to sit at. One of the complaints we got last year was there wasn’t enough places to sit, so we’ve increased the number of picnic tables we’ll have.

Steinbeck Park is really the biggest change, and it’s going to be interesting to see how that goes. It’s brand new to us doing anything there, and while it seems very convenient and very much attached to Long Wharf, it’s going to be an effort for us — in marketing and signage — to let people know that’s also part of the HarborFest activities now. We are going to have the pony rides and the petting zoo over there, also, as well as some of the children’s activities that the chamber and members run, and we’re looking at seeing what other vendors might be willing to move over to that space.

What are some of the highlights of HarborFest?

Whaleboat racing, whaleboat racing, whaleboat racing! It’s definitely the locals’ favorite event that takes place, and I think anybody who comes by enjoys it. The clam chowder contest is always a sell out, and we’re excited to have Jesse Matsuoka from Sen running it this year. He’s bringing in his restaurant Manna to also be part of it; the local restaurants are usually very good about joining in and seeing who’s going to win the best clam chowder designation for the year from HarborFest.

And, of course, the arts and crafts fair, which is the second one that we do. We do one in June, which was a huge success this year. That’s not only a crowd favorite, but it’s something that people who participate in it, the vendors, really love. It’s also one of the biggest moneymakers for the chamber. The two of them bring in a large amount of money that we have in our budget to use for decorating Sag Harbor for Christmas, the Christmas trees on Main Street, the fireworks at HarborFrost, bringing Santa to Long Wharf for children to come and meet Santa, staffing the Windmill Information Center, and just everything that goes into keeping the Chamber afloat. So they’re very important to us, and it’s also a crowd favorite.

How has the festival evolved over the years?

Back in the early 1960s, it was the Old Whalers Festival. Back in that time, it was something that famously, locally, John Steinbeck was somewhat involved in, and it was a nod to Sag Harbor’s whaling heritage and history, and it involved the teams getting in boats and rowing out to a large whale. Back in the day, they would actually harpoon it — they would throw something on it. That changed at one point. An environmental group made some sort of statement that harpooning the whale wasn’t something that looked good. Now, it’s just a little plunger that gets thrown on a Velcro pad, so it doesn’t hurt the papier-mâché whale anymore — and I think that made everybody feel better about it.

Back in the day — I truly wish I had been here for this — there was a beard growing contest, which would start sometime in the winter. The local guys would stop shaving, and then their beards would get measured. In the chamber windmill, there’s a little monument, a little rack that’s got names of who won each year. There was a parade, there was a Miss Whalers Festival. So it used to be, actually, in some ways, larger than it is now.

Why has HarborFest continued to be such an institution in Sag Harbor?

It’s always been a chance for people who work here all through the summer to let some steam off, let loose, jump in a whaleboat and row out to the large papier-mâché whale, cheer their friends on, have some fun doing that sort of stuff. There are groups of people, generations of them, where it’s the sons who are now setting up tents along Windmill Beach to watch their friends compete in the whaleboat races.

For me, that’s a real touchstone about what this event can mean to some of the people who have participated in it for 30 years. It’s more than just a festival. It’s a tradition.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.