Festival-goers crowded the walkway Saturday between the Oak Bluffs Harbor and East Chop Drive to enjoy food, shop, listen to music, and get free tickets to see their favorite collegiate baseball team.
Welcome to Harborfest, the annual opening to summer block party on the harbor.
“Is this that Vineyard singing group or what?” asked one older gentleman as he walked by the Sharks baseball tent.
“Baseball sir. We’re a baseball players,” said Grace Moore, a member of the Sharks’ publicity team. Ms. Moore handed out free tickets alongside the players and general manager Russ Curan.
“Russ, we’re getting a thousand people at tonight’s game, easy,” shouted Ms. Moore.
“That’s because of all the donuts I’m bringing,” responded Mr. Curan. Saturday night’s game would feature an apple fritter eating contest, in addition to high quality baseball.
As groups of people walked by, Carol Fligor took a break and enjoyed the view.
“Today, I walked all the way from Circuit avenue, even though I have a bad foot,” she said. “What a beautiful day. It’s the first nice day we’ve had. I wasn’t going to miss this.”
Ms. Fligor has been an Islander all her life, while her husband, Dick Fligor, washed ashore many years ago.
“Someone told Dick when he was in college, if you want to have the best summer of your life, go to Martha’s Vineyard. So he wrote to my mother at the Colonial Inn and she gave him a job. She said to me, ‘I think you’ll like this nice Ohio guy.’”
Sixty years later, Dick and Carol are still married and enjoying the Vineyard together.
Diesel, a seven-week-old kitten recently rescued by Second Chance Animal Rescue of Martha’s Vineyard, spent his Harborfest in the arms of Kym Cyr. Ms. Cyr fed the kitten while talking to throngs of animal lovers.
“He gets a special formula every two hours, and we bottle feed him,” she said. “We rescued him, and all these cats, from a kill shelter in North Carolina.”
Behind Ms. Cyr stood a wooden house filled with recently rescued kittens up for adoption.
Artist Althea Freeman-Miller was surprised by the variety of organizations represented at Harborfest.
“It is pretty different for my stuff to be between Black Dog and Lululemon,” she said.
Ms. Freeman-Miller is a printmaker and creates all her works by hand. “Today is so exciting, I get to see all my old vendor friends. This is the opening of our season pretty much.”
While Ms. Freeman-Miller saw familiar faces, this was Johnny Joseph’s first Harborfest, and his first trip to the Island.
“I’m here with my family, just for the day,” he said. “My wife’s father has been here hundreds of times, and he brought us.”
Mr. Joseph lives in Boston and was born in Antigua.
“I like this a lot. All of the vendors, the water, the people. It reminds me of home.”
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