Bay Shore’s first ‘Alive by the Bay’ festival is July 12 on Main Street

by Michael White |

Bay Shore will be rocking on a Wednesday night next month with the arrival of Alive by the Bay.

The concept for the street festival, set for July 12, can be best described as the Bay Shore Arts Festival meets Patchogue’s Alive After Five.

It’s being organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Bay Shore’s newly formed restaurant committee.

“This was the 17th year of the Arts Festival,” said Alive by the Bay organizer Anthony Tartaglia, co-owner of Verde Kitchen & Cocktails. “We drew like 10,000 people from all over the island on a Sunday in June. We just felt it would be great to do something like that at nighttime as well.”

Alive by the Bay will feature live music, about 30 vendors, as well as arts and crafts and other activities for kids. 

“It is supposed to be a family friendly event,” Tartaglia said.

The rain date is July 26.

The restaurant committee worked with members of the Greater Patchogue Chamber of Commerce to help figure out the logistics of running a series of festivals akin to the immensely popular Alive After Five series, which is entering its 16th year. 

The Patchogue chamber also helped Riverhead get its Alive on 25 series rolling in 2016.

“We wanted to use the branding, the word ’Alive,’ and they gave us their blessing,” said Tartaglia. “The name helps people know what it is, and then we put our own Bay Shore spin on it.”

The Patchogue chamber’s executive director, David Kennedy, said he and Alive After Five chairman James Skidmore were happy to share their knowledge with Bay Shore.

“I’ve always felt Patchogue, Bay Shore and Riverhead in particular are like sister communities, so it only makes sense that we work together on these same types of events,” Kennedy said. “These festivals a great opportunity to showcase all the wonderful things happening in our downtowns, and to a lot of people who might never have visited before.”

Alive by the Bay will run from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., with road closures beginning at 5 p.m. Main Street will be closed from Bay Shore Avenue/Shore Lane west to Ocean Avenue.

But Main Street will not be entirely closed from end to end. Maple Avenue will remain open for vehicles to access the Fire Island ferries to the south. 

The four-lane road will be barricaded on each side and patrolled by Suffolk County Police Department officers. There will also be nearly two dozen security guards, as well as crossing guards.

If all goes smoothly, the chamber’s restaurant committee hopes to hold two more Alive by the Bay festivals in August.  Those would also be on Wednesday evenings (Aug. 9 & 23).

“Moving forward we’re looking at three or four dates every summer,” Tartaglia said.

And the timing couldn’t be better for Bay shore, the organizers believe.

“Bay Shore has transitioned from a bar town to a restaurant town, and it’s probably one of the best on Long Island in that respect,” Tartaglia said. “Now more and more people will get to experience it.”

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