Highlights from a Summer Calendar
by Nis Kildegaard
June, July, August and September are the high season for visitors to the Vineyard, and of these, July and August are the true royalty. This season is filled with events that Vineyard residents and visitors alike await from year to year. Some of these celebrations are summer's hottest tickets - events that can be counted upon to sell out early. Others are open to all comers - indeed, part of their charm is the way they draw sociable throngs to mingle on an Island where solitude is still one of the most charming attractions of all.
Here, then, are the highlights of summer on Martha's Vineyard. For visitors, these events are favorite dates to plan vacations around. For year-round Vineyarders, they are festive and familiar milestones on the passage through the busy season.
Perennial Favorites:
Farmers' Market and the Flea
June is the kick-off month for some of summer's most popular weekly events. The Farmers' Market at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury, a festival of freshness from flowers to vegetables, begins its season Saturday, June 7th, adding Wednesdays on June 11. That same weekend, the series of Artisans Summer Fairs begin on Sunday, June 8 while the Chilmark Flea Market opens shortly thereafter on July 2. This emporium of the awesome and the arcane takes place in a rolling meadow off Middle Road, a mile from Beetlebung Corner and continues on, both Saturdays and Wednesdays, through August 30.
Fireworks on the Fourth
July kicks things up a notch, opening grandly with the festivities of Independence Day in Edgartown. The parade down Main street starts at 5 pm and celebrates the Vineyard community in memorable style. Expect to see Edgartown firemen pulling their antique Button Tub engine and squirting the crowd, and don't be surprised if the rowdy denizens of Camp Jabberwocky, the Island's summer cerebral palsy camp, win the prize for Best Float.
Happy Birthday, Tisbury!
On July 8, the town of Vineyard Haven closes its Main street and turns it into a teeming party scene to mark its birthday with the Tisbury Street Fair. Townspeople tried making this event one of those movable celebrations, like Presidents Day, but recently decided that since July 8 is Tisbury's birthday, July 8 it is. If you like lobster rolls, face painting, dunking booths and mobs of people, this is the event for you. (To avoid the traffic jam, consider parking at the Martha's Vineyard Regional high school and catching a shuttle bus to and from the festivities.)
Portuguese-American Feast
On Saturday and Sunday, July 19 and 20, the heritage of the Island's sturdy Portuguese settlers is celebrated in the Feast of the Holy Ghost on the grounds of the Portuguese-American Club in Oak Bluffs. The rich kale soup called Sopa is a mainstay of this event, and so is a rich sense of pride and history. Everyone is welcome.
A Monster Fishing Event
An event which has exploded onto the Island's summer calendar in terms of sheer popularity is the Monster Shark Fishing Tournament from July 17 to 19. Thousands of people line the Oak Bluffs Harbor at the end of each fishing day to see amazing specimens measured and weighed in. It's worth noting that the vast majority of fish caught in this event are released, and that important scientific data is collected in the course of the tournament. Several sharks landed in this contest have set new world records for the International Game Fishing Association.
Dreams for Sale
If gawking at dead fish isn't your thing, how about ogling live celebrities? You can do that on Monday evening, August 4, for a good cause - when Martha's Vineyard Community Services holds its 30th annual Possible Dreams Auction. The premise of this event, held this year for the first time at Outerland, is simple: Offer up for auction a set of prizes that absolutely aren't for sale anywhere else, at any price. A private sailing trip with Walter Cronkite aboard his yacht and a personal serenade by Carly Simon have been among the top bid-winners in years past.
Summer's Grand Finale:
Fair, Fireworks and Illumination Night
Finally in mid-August, like a symphonic crescendo, the Island's most festive season builds to its peak. It's that remarkable moment when summer literally goes out with a bang, punctuated by the spectacular fireworks over Ocean Park, Oak Bluffs (this year on the night of Friday, August 22). Surrounding that grand exclamation point are two more events rich in Island history, Illumination Night on August 20 and the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair from August 21 to 24.
Illumination Night is a program of the Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting Association, which started a tradition of summer religious retreats in what is now the town of Oak Bluffs more than a century and a half ago. At the center of the association's property is the grand, wrought-iron Tabernacle building, and around the Tabernacle are a remarkable collection of small cottages built in the gingerbread style now recognized as Campground Gothic Revival. After a program of music, a ceremonial lantern is lit in the darkened Tabernacle and at that signal, hundreds more are lit all through the historic Campground. This event draws such a throng each year that the association has taken to scheduling it during the Agricultural Fair just to thin the crowds a bit.
For the four days of the Agricultural Fair the Island has a special adage: All roads lead to West Tisbury. In years past, nearly 30,000 paying customers walked through the fairground gates to enjoy the midway rides, food, music, demonstrations and exhibit hall full of all things agricultural - from home-baked muffins to giant pumpkins and sunflowers. For Island visitors and residents alike, the fair is not only a wonderful social gathering but a reminder of this community's rich agricultural heritage and enduring connection to the land.
...And there's more!
What did we leave out? The whole concert season of the Martha's Vineyard Chamber Music Society and the theatrical season of the Vineyard Playhouse; the summer run of Vineyard Artisan Fairs at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury; the stimulating programs of the Community Center in Chilmark and the Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven, and a host of others. But these highlights should be enough to suggest that summers on Martha's Vineyard are so filled with festivities, you'll be hard-pressed to pick a week without a memorable celebration or two
