Harbor Days returns to Port Alden this weekend for the first time in two years, after budget shortfalls forced the town to cancel the festival in each of the previous two summers. This year's event runs Friday through Sunday along the waterfront, but organizers say residents should expect a smaller version of the festival than the one they remember from before the cancellations.
The parade route has been shortened from its traditional 1.2-mile path down Front Street and around the harbor loop to a half-mile stretch of Front Street alone, and the Sunday-night fireworks show will run roughly eight minutes, about half the length of the last full display in 2023.
Festival committee chair Mara Okafor said the town allocated $34,000 for this year's Harbor Days, down from the roughly $61,000 the festival cost in 2023, and that every cut was made to preserve the parts residents said they'd miss most.
"We asked people directly, at the spring meeting, what they could live without and what they couldn't," Okafor said. "Nobody wanted to lose the boat parade or the food vendors, so the fireworks and the parade route are where we found the savings."
What's happening this weekend
Friday evening opens with the boat parade in the harbor at 6:30, followed by live music on the town dock stage through 9 p.m. Saturday runs a full schedule from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., including the shortened parade at noon, a crafts market along Front Street, and a kids' fishing derby at the north pier. Fireworks close out the festival Sunday at 8:45 p.m., launched from a barge anchored off the town dock rather than the pier used in past years.
Vendors on the return
Twenty-two vendors signed up for this year's crafts market, close to the pre-cancellation average, according to organizers. Chowder vendor Ben Truscott, who has set up a stand at Harbor Days for eleven years, said he raised his prices slightly to cover higher ingredient costs but was glad to be back regardless.
"Two years is a long time for a stand you only run three days a year to just not happen," Truscott said. "I had customers texting me this spring asking if it was really coming back. Now I can tell them yes."
Okafor said the committee hopes a fuller budget next year will allow the parade route and fireworks to return closer to their previous scale, but that no decision has been made and next year's Harbor Days will depend on the town's budget process this winter. Additional reporting for this story was contributed by Tom Achterberg and Priya Natarajan.
