The Port Washington Chamber of Commerce and the Town of North Hempstead will be presenting the 26th Annual HarborFest Dock Day and Craft Festival on Sunday, June 5. All events officially begin at 10 a.m. at the Town Dock, Baxter’s Pond and Lower Main Street. Admission is free and there will be free parking at the train station and Manorhaven Park. The Admiral Sponsor of HarborFest is Anton Media Group. 
A big attraction is the HarborFest Craft Show, featuring 100 quality craftspeople. Their booths will be located along Lower Main Street near the Town Dock. The Craft Fair is sponsored by Blank Slate Media and Home Run Electric. Another attraction along Main Street is Art in the Park, sponsored and organized by The Art Guild with additional sponsorship from the Knickerbocker Bay Club. It features local artists displaying their work in Sunset Park along the Manhasset Bay waterfront. They will also have a free Plein Air Workshop for adults at 1:30 p.m. and a free Clay Workshop for children at 12 p.m. Button making will be offered throughout the day.
As soon as you enter the dock, look for the Chamber of Commerce booth and the Town of North Hempstead booth. Both locations will be giving out free reusable shopping bags for all your HarborFest purchases and future shopping. The Chamber’s bags are sponsored by the Port Washington Water Taxi, and additional bags have been donated by Stop & Shop.
The 80-foot, three-masted schooner SoundWaters, will return to Manhasset Bay for HarborFest. On Saturday, June 4, SoundWaters will depart from the Town Dock for a Sunset Sail from 6 to 8 p.m. During HarborFest Dock Day, on Sunday, June 5, SoundWaters will set sail at 12, 2 and 4 p.m. Reservations for all sails may be made online at www.harborfestcruises.eventbrite.com. The cost for the Sunset Sail is $35 per person, all ages. The cost for the Sunday Dock Day Sail is $25 for adults and $15 for children ages 5 to 12. Please note that children under 5 should not participate in the cruises. Founded in 1989, SoundWaters’ mission is to educate children and adults about the wonder and beauty of the Long Island Sound and its watershed.
To allow people to see up close how beautiful our Bay truly is, Port Washington’s Water Taxi, the Charles II, will be available to take people on cruises throughout the day on HarborFest. Atlantic Outfitters will offer free kayaking for the adventurous.
A highly anticipated event is the demonstration of the Port Washington Fire Department’s new Fire Boat at the Town Dock. The demonstrations are sure to be exciting for all the festival-goers.
Many lucky visitors can catch a free ride on the picturesque North Fork Trolley, sponsored by the Greater Port Washington Business Improvement District (The BID). The trolley will make a continuous loop from the train station to the festival.
The HarborFest Model Boat Regatta program has Chamber of Commerce volunteers teaching third-graders from all Port elementary schools how to make catamaran-style boats from recycled materials. Registration for participants takes place at Baxter’s Pond at 9:15 a.m. for Sousa and Daly, at 10 a.m. for Guggenheim and Salem, and at 10:30 a.m. for Manorhaven and St. Peter’s. The Regatta races will take place from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Marian Weissman organized the classroom sessions. Mary Lu Dempsey, Greg Hovsepian, Bill Palafox and Dawn Wands helped to put the boat kits together and Bill Palafox and Greg Hovsepian will organize the races. The Regatta’s T-shirt sponsor is the Port Washington Public Library Foundation-Tepper Intergenerational Program. Regatta Benefactors are the Baxter’s Pond Foundation and the Nautical Advisory Committee of the Port Washington Public Library. Major sponsors are Atlantic Outfitters, Center Island Contracting, Douglas Elliman Real Estate, Knights of Columbus, the Manhasset Bay Yacht Club, North Shore Yacht Club, Port Sailing Center, the Port Washington Yacht Club and Total Dollar Management. Additional financial support is received from many Chamber of Commerce members.
The very popular HarborFest Family Fun Park is sponsored by Sandata and organized by The Parent Resource Center (PRC) and the Chamber of Commerce. Visit the PRC Fun Tent, which always delights the children with fabulous games and crafts. This year, the PRC has added a train ride and photo booth in the Fun Park. The PRC activities are sponsored by Alana Mitnick Benjamin and Nava Mitnick of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty, Port Beer & Soda, Shining Studios, Tori’s Place and Whole Foods Market in Manhasset. Also in the Family Fun Park, the Science Museum of Long Island will offer hands-on fun with a touch tank and the Port Washington Tennis Academy will set up a mini tennis court. Plus, a dozen other local organizations and businesses will have games, sports activities, science fun and crafts so the kids will never get bored. The Fun Park also features free family entertainment all day on the Family Fun Stage. The children’s entertainment will kickoff at 10 a.m. with Mrs. Meltzer’s kindergarten class saying the “Pledge of Allegiance” and singing “My Country ’Tis of Thee” and “America the Beautiful.” At 10:10 a.m., Port’s own Hannah Ericsson and Sophia Schleibeler will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Then at 10:15 a.m., the much-anticipated Talented Kids of Port Washington Show will begin. After the Talent Show, at 12 p.m., Shining Studios will give a performance. At 12:30 p.m., Danceworks NY Studio will perform. At 1 p.m. there will be an exciting show by the Hip Hop group from the Port Washington Teen Center. At 1:20 p.m., Voice Academy students will perform. Starting at 2 p.m., iSchool of Music will present The Bands of HarborFest. The Family Fun Stage is sponsored by Camp Jacobson, Diane’s Place Hair Salon, Healthy Kids Pediatrics, Little Smiles Pediatric Dentistry, Massage Envy and Sherwin-Williams.
The unique HarborFest Treasure Hunt, organized for HarborFest by Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty, will be back with fabulous prizes from local merchants and special gifts for all. Children can go to participating businesses from May 21 to June 4 and say the “secret message” to get a voucher for a chance to find the lucky key to the Treasure Chest. (“One if by land, two if by sea, I’ll say ‘please’ for a chance for the key.”) They can bring their vouchers to the Treasure Hunt booth on the dock anytime from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. during Dock Day. The Treasure Hunt is made possible by the sponsorship of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty and Dance Arts Centre.
On the Town Dock, there will be dozens of local merchants and organizations offering fine shopping and browsing, activities, giveaways, services and information. As always, a main attraction will be HarborFest’s Fabulous Food Court. Port’s finest restaurants and organizations will present their specialties to feed the hungry crowds. There will be tasty selections from Ayhan’s Shish Kebab, LI Festival Catering, Port Youth Activities, the Manhasset Bay Sportsmen’s Club, Rosie’s Food Truck and Yummy Gyro. For sweet treats you will find delicious choices from COFFEED Sweet Comfort, the Crazy Cakes Food Truck, Long Island Kettle Corn, Metropolitan Egg Cream and Ralph’s Italian Ices. Everyone in Port knows Mel’s Ice Cream truck. Look for Mel’s bright new truck in Sunset Park, by the Art in the Park exhibits. Come hungry—you can feast all day at HarborFest.
HarborFest will showcase free live entertainment in front of the Pride of Cow Bay Tugboat Museum at the entrance to the dock. Coda Bay Band will get everyone in the mood for fun with the opening act at 10:15 a.m. HarborFest’s popular nautical singers Stout will perform their rousing melodies at 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Martial arts will take center stage with a World Tae Kwon Do demonstration at 12 p.m. Don’t miss the Wright Brothers Banjo performance at 1:30 p.m. The talented cast of the Red Stocking Revue will perform several fabulous encore selections from Port’s favorite variety show, beginning at
2 p.m. The Fred Astaire Dance Studio of Manhasset will debut at HarborFest with demonstrations and lessons at 4:30 p.m. The HarborFest entertainment is sponsored by Precision Work.
The mission of HarborFest is to promote environmental awareness and the HarborFest Committee offers free booths to organizations that promote the environment. There will be new hands-on demonstrations, displays about Manhasset Bay and up-to-date information and products, all sponsored by Madison Taxi, Manorhaven Taxi and Port Washington Taxi. As part of the environmental awareness mission of HarborFest, the Town of North Hempstead Office of Sustainability will have a prominent booth near the dock entrance to give out important information. They will bring bottle recycling bins to the dock for disposal of plastic water bottles. Grassroots Environmental Education has organized a timely environmental education project that will tackle the issue of keeping our world free from plastics. The project is called Our Plastic World: Recycling is Not the Answer. It will involve the fifth-graders from all of Port’s elementary schools. Look for their fascinating exhibit in the Enviro-Expo section. Grassroots Environmental Education, a Port Washington-based nonprofit, has designed the project and worked with the children. The project is sponsored by Newsday Media Group.
HarborFest’s very own Port Hole Pete will be at the helm of the Pride of Cow Bay Nautical Museum, where a new exhibit, The Water’s Edge, will be unveiled. The exhibit was curated by Debbie Greco and contains spectacular photos of the Port Washington waterfront by local photographer Tab Hauser. View the exhibit through the tugboat’s portholes. It will be on display throughout the year, beginning at HarborFest. The exhibit is sponsored by Inform Fitness and Strong’s Marine.
Near the entrance to the dock you will also find a new addition to HarborFest—an ATM for your convenience. The ATM is sponsored by Long Island Boat Rentals.
HarborFest is made possible by the Town of North Hempstead, the Port Washington Chamber of Commerce and the Admiral Sponsorship of Anton Media Group. In addition to all the sponsors mentioned above, other HarborFest sponsors are: Apple & Eve, Anthony’s World of Floors, Austin F. Knowles, Inc. Funeral Home, Bendix Engineering, Bott’s Service Center, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Danceworks NY, Dime Savings Bank, Four Seasons Sunrooms, Fred Astaire Dance Studio of Manhasset, G&L Masonry, Happy Montessori School, In Focus Eyewear, Newsday Home Delivery, Port Washington Calendar, Port Washington Federal Credit Union, Port Washington PBA, Port Washington Tennis Academy and CMT SportsPro Summer Camp, Roslyn Savings Bank—a Division of NYCB, Dr. Glen Ruben & Dr. Alec Ganci General Dentistry, Sands Point Center for Health & Rehabilitation, Sheehan & Co. CPA, PC, Sherwin-Williams, St. Francis Hospital, Sylvan Learning Center, Tightlines Fishing & Tackle, Toms Point Marina and Tutor Doctor.
The Chamber of Commerce gives special thanks to The Art Guild, CancerCare’s Red Stocking Revue, Grassroots Environmental Education, Nassau County, the Parent Resource Center, the Port Washington Fire Department, the Port Washington Police District, the Port Washington Water Pollution Control District, Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth, Town of North Hempstead Councilwoman Dina De Giorgio, Town of North Hempstead Department of Parks and Recreation, Town of North Hempstead Highway Department, Town of North Hempstead Office of Sustainability and the Village of Baxter Estates. For more information, call
the Chamber of Commerce at
516-883-6566, email office@pwcoc
.org, or visit www.pwcoc.org and www.pwguide.com or on Facebook.
