Hundreds of shoppers waiting in line to go to the Shop Bop pop-up shop in Edgartown last week were met with a group of protesters who urged them to shop at locally-owned businesses.
Long-simmering tensions over the future of retail shopping in downtown Edgartown boiled over this week after an Amazon subsidiary applied to host a pop-up event later this month.
The allure of Martha’s Vineyard in the summer is attracting more and more travelers by air, with 2025 continuing the trends of ballooning passengers counts over the last five years at the Island’s airport.
Summer for local businesses was a mixed bag, with July a bit slow and August on fire. And concerns about an immigration crackdown led organizers to again postpone a Brazilian festival.
Numbers published in various publications have been as high as 200,000. To try and get a more accurate take on the elusive figure, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission went to work.
With Memorial Day comes the unofficial start to the busy summer season. Across the Island, store owners are unboxing new merchandise and home owners are putting one last coat of paint of the fence.
About 64,000 people have taken commercial flights at the airport in the first eight months of 2023 — a figure that is already higher than the total annual commercial passengers for three of the past five years.
Harbor reservations are at an all-time high, ferries have robust bookings and the airport is bracing for its annual onslaught of private and commercial planes.
The days are shorter, the air is cooler and the kids are back in school — but this is still tourist season on Martha’s Vineyard, where fall is second only to summer as the Island’s busiest time.
