It’s no jive: As Riverhead has come into its own as a bona fide tourist destination in recent years, the town’s Alive on 25 summer street festival has emerged as one of Eastern Long Island’s most popular and action-packed outings.
Beginning on June 30 and running every other Friday through August 11 (August 18 is the rain date), the festival offers a range of pop-up culinary pleasures and other features that have historically included car shows and lots and lots of music hosted by the town’s numerous brewpubs, restaurants, and by East End Arts — all free, open to the public, and decidedly family-friendly.
On festival days, vendors will deploy between the stretch of Main Street in downtown Riverhead from Griffing Avenue to McDermott Avenue. Drivers beware: All of Main Street is closed to vehicular traffic during Alive on 25 days, from 3 to 10 p.m. Any cars parked on Main Street after 3 p.m. will be towed, and organizers warn that “it happens at least once per year.”
Past festival years have featured tractor shows, fireworks (those blast off on June 30 at 9 p.m. this year; the fireworks rain date is July 14), a Riverhead Raceway Car Show, a Drag Race Car Show and public art shows.
The festival features more edibles than you can shake a kebab stick at, with tons of grub vendors descending on the town and offering a robust range of victuals while local restaurants lay out festival-friendly spreads of their own.
Speaking of edibles, gyrating to the music in an ecstatic state in the street is permitted during Alive on 25, but smoking is not — no weed, no cigarettes, none of it. Festival-goers are also proscribed from bringing food or coolers weighed down by their own boozy beverages — drinks are available for sale at various suds stations peppered through the festival lands and accessed via a wristband protocol for the over-21 crowd. So do not BYOB, and don’t puff up along the Peconic River, but do have a great time.
For more information, visit downtownriverhead.org.
