The projected thunder and rain stayed away and it was a hot, sunny day when hundreds of people came out for the 29th annual HarborFest on Sunday.
Port Washington’s premier festival, which spans from lower Main Street to the Town Dock, showcased Port Washington merchants, cuisine and organizations.
The event, sponsored by the Port Washington Chamber of Commerce and the Town of North Hempstead, also incorporated Port’s maritime tradition with a number of different water activities such as Manhasset Bay water cruises and rides aboard the schooner SoundWaters.
Patrons perused merchandise from over 90 vendors that sold everything from tumeric to instructional drone courses with Port’s Andrea Watson.
Mr. Peppers On the Go, a hot sauce company based in Stony Brook, sold out of its special creation, Purple Rain, a hot sauce made using tiger peppers, which are purple.
Plant A Row for the Hungry Port Washington provided free vegetable plants to start a garden. The organization encourages people to begin their own vegetable gardens and to then donate their surplus produce to the hungry.
Dan’s Dog Walking and Pet Sitting, an island-wide pet service founded in Port Washington, had attendees take a shot at guessing how many tennis balls were in a bucket.
Guesses ranged from 20 balls up to 200. One of the employees suspected that the correct answer was 67 tennis balls.
Lifelong HarborFest attendees and twins Hannah and Sophie Roth said they love coming each year and checking out all the different organizations in Port Washington.
They said the Port Washington Public Library had a really nice stand that featured Schreiber High School student Lily Labella, who is working to begin a literary magazine at her school.
“The food was also really, really good,” Sophie Roth said.
The twins said they had no trouble finding vegetarian options and enjoyed Ayhan Mediterranean Grill’s falafel and grilled cheeses from Alex’s Grilled Cheese Stand.
The talent of Port Washington children was presented throughout the day on the Family Fun Stage. Three girls showed off their hula hoop skills with Berest Dance Studio and students at Bluemoon Taekwondo exhibited their martial art techniques.
There were also tons of activities for children, with train rides, face painting, fishing, sand art and a petting zoo among others.
