Celebrate at the annual Street Fair–No Gifts Necessary.
by Nick Macksood
Few American towns can claim to be tri-centenarians. For those of you who opted to sleep during your Latin courses, that’s three hundred years old. To be precise, July 8 will be West Tisbury’s 344th birthday and as has been custom since the old Methuselah turned 300 in 1971, the West Tisbury Street Fair will once again line the sidewalks of Main Street in downtown Vineyard Haven.
For one night a year, Main Street is blocked off from vehicle traffic and utterly inundated with both visitors and local businesses and charities who set up booths and stands with a wide variety of family-friendly games and events. Dunk tanks, face painting, arts and crafts, clothing, books, and souvenirs, a climbing wall, live music, people watching–these are but few of the many goings-on at the Street Fair. And the food.
Oh, street food, the most sacred of all national gastronomies. It might not be haute cuisine–okay, it isn’t–but that’s the point. In the past, we’ve found golden brown, sugary dough in all of its fried goodness, classic lobster rolls, grilled shrimp and scallops, fresh squeezed lemonade, cotton candy for the youngsters, and pie–plenty of pie. Street food is meant to be eaten on the fly. It’s inexpensive. And it’s almost never small. With a $13 lobster roll nearly spilling out of one hand and a baseball in the other, the potential energy is just primed to send the local priest to the bottom of a dunk tank. America the beautiful.
The Street Fair starts at 6:30 p.m. and runs until 9:30 p.m. Main Street will be jammed–arriving early is preferable–and parking is even more challenging to navigate. Free parking is available at the Vineyard Haven Park n’ Ride lot, with complimentary shuttle service to and from the fair.
