Alive After Five unlikely this summer, officials say

As part of the village board’s first meeting back together in the same room with masks and plastic partitions but no members of the public, earlier last week, Greater Patchogue Chamber of Commerce executive director David Kennedy addressed the trustees and mayor in hopes of committing to outdoor dining dates in the near future.

Kennedy suggested the possibility of Thursday night outdoor dining with a Main Street closure throughout the summer season, Memorial Day through September and possibly October, with dining from 5 to 10 p.m. and closures from 6 to 9 p.m., accommodating for setup and breakdown.

“We recognize this is a big commitment for the village to make as we enter new territory and [people are] much more active than we were allowed to be last year,” Kennedy said, also noting he was flexible with the number of dates allotted for on-street dining. “We’re open to what the village wants.”

Mayor Paul Pontieri said he doesn’t want to see the on-street dining turn into a mass of people coming down to Main Street with the expectations of an event similar to Alive After Five.

“I like the idea, we just have to be very cautious how we present it,” Pontieri said.

However, Kennedy noted that the events would solely feature dining with no beer pens. The idea would be the same as last year’s, requiring patrons to make reservations with individual restaurants; no one will be permitted to just “show up.” Also, masks and social distancing would be adhered to. However, restaurant owners, Kennedy said, have requested a shift to Thursday nights rather than Sundays, being that evenings during the summer are cooler.

“We can talk about this a little bit more and see what the next step would be,” Kennedy said. “We would like to do something a little different.”

Kennedy also suggested allowing retailers to offer on-street sales as well as the possibility of having the Patchogue Farmer’s Market utilize a street closure to offer some variety. Pontieri offered to meet sometime this week to discussion possible options and nail down the frequency of the potential event.

As for Alive After Five, even prior to the pandemic, Kennedy said discussions have arose suggesting a slim-down of the event. He said he hopes future public meetings could be held to see what the plan for the event series might or should look like in 2022.

“At the end of the last Alive After Five, there was discussion already starting about changing the event up a bit. It was getting too big and too rambunctious,” he said, also noting that he hopes to see the committee take this year off to bring all the stakeholders into a room for an opportunity for feedback so that it can return in 2022. “This is a very important event for this community and we can’t just let it disappear and fade out.”

Still, according to Kennedy and Alive After Five committee chair Jacqueline Routh, they are holding on to hopes of the possibility of a scaled-down version of the event towards the end of the summer and though an official announcement hasn’t been made cancelling the event, she said, just based on the obvious status of the pandemic, it would be extremely difficult to pull off.

“Regardless of how mindful we are that creates potential for a lot of traffic and it would be a real shame to have an issue this year that could prohibit us from coming back in full force next year,” she said. “We did Pride for first time last year, then the world went dark. We felt we were on the precipice of fundamentally changing the event to becoming even more welcoming for people that live here.”

Back in January, the board approved potential dates for Alive After Five this year as follows: July 8 and 22, Aug. 5 and 19 with an Aug. 29 rain date.