LI's Envy on the Coast to play opening night at this year's Great South Bay Music Festival

For Ryan Hunter and Brian Byrne, following their hearts has worked out well in the past two years.

Since unexpectedly deciding to resurrect Long Island scene heroes Envy on the Coast in 2016, they have completed a sold-out tour, released a well-received new EP, and are now set to play their biggest Long Island show in years on Thursday, July 13, an opening-night spot for this year’s Great South Bay Music Festival.

Though they are in the middle of recording their comeback album, they jumped at the chance to play the festival, even if the timing didn’t make much sense.

“It’s a prestigious thing based on the lineup,” Hunter says. “We haven’t played a festival in a while. But it’s a big deal to play on the bill with a band like The Get Up Kids, who were an iconic band in the scene we came up in. Playing with Thrice is the same deal.”

“We thought it was weird that we hadn’t played it since we’re from here,” adds Byrne, noting that their friends Taking Back Sunday headlined the festival last year. “It’s time for us.”

So Hunter and Byrne will tear themselves away from Tone House Studios in West Babylon, where they have been holed up for months working on the first Envy album since 2010, to do the only show they have planned for the year.

“We wanted them for what they mean to Long Island,” says Jim Faith, the festival’s founder and co-producer. “We are so glad we get to bring them to the festival for their fans.”

The Get Up Kids’ frontman Matt Pryor says the band was happy to promote its new EP, “Kicker” (Polyvinyl), at the festival, a much different environment from the Long Island bars and VFW halls it played with The Movielife and Brand New. “We played Long Island a lot, especially when James [Dewees, the band’s keyboard player] lived there,” Pryor says. “We are ready to fill that stage up.”

Envy on the Coast is also eager to make a strong impression. “It’s really heartwarming to know that so many people still thought of us,” Byrne says. “We are lucky in that respect.”