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Plans are firmly in the works to bring Alive After Five back to the streets of downtown Patchogue for the summer of 2022, along with a push to make it a bit more family friendly.
David Kennedy, executive director of the Greater Patchogue Chamber of Commerce, confirmed to greaterpatchogue.com that the chamber has been in talks with the village to revive the immensely popular summer street festival.
AA5 went virtual in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in 2021, the chamber replaced the event with a scaled-down, more family-friendly version called the Sundown Festival, which Kennedy said was “tremendous” and well received by the community.
Going into 2022, Kennedy says the chamber and village met recently to discuss how they can combine the traditional AA5 and Sundown Festival into one this year.
“Obviously, we’re in a new world right now, everything has changed and it certainly gives us an opportunity to look at the event and what we can do to improve it,” Kennedy said. “We’re trying to figure out. How do we present the event that respects … those who really love Alive After Five as it always was and other people who were attracted to the Sundown Festival?”
Kennedy said the chamber will propose four dates to the Village Board and if approved, this summer’s AA5 installments will be July 14 and 28 and Aug. 11 and 25.
“We’re all hopeful that we’re at a point with the pandemic that it’s winding down for good, that by the time we get to July, we can say that it’s behind us,” Kennedy said. “But you know, I’ve been saying that for the past couple of years, and it’s thrown us some curveballs, so we have to keep that in mind too.
“I think the expectation is that we are definitely going to make every attempt to make it happen this year,” he added. “There are no guarantees at this point, but all parties are confident that we’re going to get it off.”
Continue to follow greaterpatchogue.com for updates and more details to come on Alive After Five.
[Correction: A prior version of this article said one of the proposed dates was Aug. 5. It is not. The above dates are now all correct.]
Top: An aerial view of an Alive After Five festival in 2018 by Benny Migliorino/Benny Migs Photo.
