After more than three decades of organizing one of Greenport’s signature community celebrations, the East End Seaport Museum & Marine Foundation announced on Thursday that it will pause the village’s popular Maritime Festival in 2026 as it refocuses on its core mission of preservation, education and modernization.
But the festival itself, a cornerstone of the village’s fall calendar and an anchor of its local economy, will continue. Greenport Business Improvement District (BID) officials said they are ready to step in and take the helm.
On Friday, the BID said in a press release that it would form a steering committee of BID members and local leaders to “re-conceive, organize and execute the logistics of the festival.”
The BID board aims for “a return to a more authentic festival that incorporates more local businesses, working waterfront experiences and avoids the conflicting presence of other vendors who compete with our local business community,” according to the statement.
BID president Richard Vandenburgh said the board is committed to return the festival to its roots.
“We can’t lose yet another 30-plus-year tradition.”
The organizational meeting to pick a steering committee will be held on Nov. 10 at 5:30 p.m. in Greenport’s Little Red Schoolhouse.
In a statement Thursday, Sarah Mills Sands, chair of the museum’s Board of Trustees, said the decision followed “thoughtful consideration and valuable input” from local partners and community members. The museum, she said, is entering a “defining and transformative year” in 2026, concentrating on three priorities: modernizing the museum, preserving Bug Lighthouse and expanding educational and conservation initiatives.
Sands said in the statement that the pause in the festival will allow the organization to channel its limited volunteer and financial resources toward projects that advance its long-term sustainability.
“Our vision extends beyond a single weekend of celebration — toward year-round opportunities for learning, celebration and exploration that bring maritime history into conversation with today’s most pressing issues,” she wrote.
For Vandenburgh and the BID, the museum’s decision opened the door to rethink what the festival could be — and how it could better serve the business community and reflect the village’s maritime roots.
“The view I have, and the view I’ve heard from others, is that Maritime has kind of become something really different than what it was originally,” Vandenburgh said. “We’d like to get back to a more authentic event that celebrates our maritime history and culture and works more closely with the business community.”
He said the BID’s vision is for a slightly smaller, more locally focused festival — “not the window-replacement guys” at the vending stands, as he put it — but one more centered around local craftspeople, marine heritage and waterfront traditions. “We want to make sure it feels like a Greenport festival again.”
Vandenburgh said that while the festival’s massive crowds bring welcome activity to the village, the event may have become logistically and financially overwhelming for the museum and for some business owners.
He noted that museum expenses for the festival, including thousands in village sanitation cleanup costs, had grown “out of whack relative to the effort they were bringing to bear,” compounded by a shortage of volunteers.
Still, he emphasized that the festival’s economic benefits for the community are undeniable.
“Those are wallets you want to tap into — people coming into town, patronizing businesses,” he said. “We want to make sure the local economy sees a positive impact — not just [vendors] rolling into town for two days and rolling back out with a pocket full of cash.”
Vandenburgh said the BID intends to work closely with the Seaport Museum to maintain the event’s historical character while relieving the organization of the logistical burden.
“They could still take care of everything that happens in Mitchell Park — the boats, the cardboard boat race,” he said. “We’d handle the coordination of vendors, food trucks and the rest. There are ways to make this work.”
He also framed the transition not as an end but as an evolution and a “rethinking” of priorities and logistics. “The BID is 100 percent prepared to step up and make sure it’s a positive weekend,” Vandenburgh said. “We just can’t lose another tradition that defines who we are.”
The East End Seaport Museum’s Land & Sea Gala, which traditionally raises funds to support museum programs and maritime preservation efforts, will continue in 2026. The museum, now under the leadership of new executive director Erin Kimmel, said in the statement that it remains committed to collaboration with community partners as it looks to the future.
Excellent coverage of this transition, Chris!