TheĀ Alive After FiveĀ dates for 2020 have been approved.
The first Alive After Five of 2020 will happen Thursday, June 25, and the series will run every other Thursday thereafter, with four dates total.
Those dates areĀ July 9, July 23 and Aug. 6, with an Aug. 20 rain date should one festival get cancelled due to weather, which happened in 2018.
David Kennedy of theĀ Greater Patchogue Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the festival series, requested the dates on behalf of the chamber Monday before the Village Board, which approved them.
In the meantime, Kennedy said, the chamber, village officials and the 5th Precinct will be huddling in an effort to make the festivals more friendly family in the future, with less of an emphasis on drinking.
“We don’t know exactly the improvements we’re going to make yet, but everybody around the table agrees we want to bring back that family element” to Alive After Five, Kennedy told the board.
It looks like that will mainly involve reexamining the drinking pens (one pictured above) that are stationed outside most of the downtown restaurants on festival dates.
“Everybody agrees the way it’s done now needs to change,” Kennedy. “And there’s different ideas on what we can do to at least keep certain elements everybody knows and loves about the event without it becoming so overpowering that families don’t feel as comfortable as they should for this event.”
Kennedy later said it was premature to disclose any details on what’s being considered.
2020 will mark the 19th year for Alive After Five in Patchogue, a concept that has since been adopted in other Long Island downtowns.
With the backing of chamber leaders in Patchogue, theĀ Riverhead Business Improvement DistrictĀ now runsĀ Alive on 25Ā and downtown Bay Shore plays host toĀ Alive by the Bay, which is organized by theĀ Chamber of Commerce of Greater Bay ShoreāsĀ restaurant committee.
The Babylon Village Chamber of Commerce last year launched a similar concept, though it’s called Babylon Block Party, with no Alive in its name.
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