This Thursday, July 11th, the Greater Patchogue Chamber of Commerce will present the first Alive After Five® of the 2013 summer season. The festival continues on the following Thursdays: July 22, August 8 and August 25. And you read that correctly…it is on Thursday this year.
Despite the change in the day of the week, Alive After Five® 2013 will still be the same great entertaining night out on Main Street it has always been. We still provide six stages showcasing our incredible local musical talent, with restaurants providing dining al fresco and numerous places to sample the exceptional local craft brew Patchogue is famous for. This year we also will have a new "family fun zone" with an added stage sponsored by the Chamber providing a variety of entertainment, including a Chinese Auction fashion show, dance performances and a local talent show.
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Of course the biggest question about this year's Alive After Five® has been…"Why Thursday?" Well, the simple answer is actually another question…"Have you been to Patchogue on an average Friday night lately?" If you have, you know that finding a place to park is a challenge, and once parked, getting into our many local bars and restaurants is the next challenge. With that in mind, just consider finding a place to park, and then a seat at your favorite Patchogue establishment when you add a few thousand more people on Main Street.
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Thankfully, our local public safety officials have noticed what a "normal" Friday night in Patchogue has become. They made clear to the Chamber that there is no possible way they could allow or approve Alive After Five® to continue on Fridays .The fact is we need their approvals to have this event. For the Chamber, the choice was simple: hold Alive After Five® on Thursdays or cancel the event. The Chamber chose to stay Alive After Five®.
Let's also keep in perspective why Alive After Five® was created over a decade ago in the first place. At that time, Patchogue was pretty quiet on Fridays. The Brickhouse and Reese's 1900 was basically it if you wanted to hang out in and around Main Street. The goal of Alive After Five® was to create more Friday night excitement and energy on Main Street that was lacking. Guess what? It worked!
There is no need to list the many new restaurants, bars and entertainment venues that have opened since the first Alive After Five®, providing exceptional dinning, great local music and craft beer on a daily basis. Many of the patrons at these places were first exposed to Patchogue by Alive After Five®. Now, every Friday is already very much alive after five, making a festival on those nights redundant and creates potentially negative impact to the positive vibe Main Street, Patchogue has currently established.
Still, the Chamber recognizes Alive After Five® has become an event many in and outside our community looks forward to every summer and it would be disappointing if we discontinued this event. Thursday was the only realistic option we had if we wanted to continue.
Bottom Line: Same great time, different night. Patchogue is staying Alive After Five®! We hope you join us.
