Living near Oyster Fest, Great South Bay Music Festival, other fairgrounds

More than 150,000 people descend on downtown Oyster Bay in October for Oyster Fest, billed as the East Coast's largest waterfront festival.

For visitors, it's a two-day extravaganza of oysters, crafts, music and more. But for some who live full time in the normally quiet bayside hamlet, it's two days of crushing crowds.

The first year Kimberly Schiller lived in her Oyster Bay home was particularly bad.

"One parent had their kid urinate on our front lawn, and another tried to park with their car overhanging our driveway," said Schiller, who lives about a half-mile east of the start of the festivities.

For those who live in downtown areas that play host to annual feasts, fairs and festivals, life changes drastically for the duration of the festivities. Some welcome the change of pace; others avoid it at all costs. And, real estate agents selling a home in one of these downtowns are typically upfront with clients about what they can expect when the fair comes to town.

Oyster Fest: Lots of oysters, plenty of people

This year's Oyster Fest — the 41st — will be run by the Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce which is committed to keeping it an all-local event, notes Ryan Schlotter, president of the Chamber, and owner of the Oyster Bay Brewery.

"We've brought all the local restaurants to run the food tents, rather than hire outside companies," said Schlotter, adding that all the oysters will be purchased from the Long Island Oyster Growers Association.

Over the years, Schlotter would hear stories about people leaving town during the fest. But that was then. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, people seem eager to take advantage of opportunities to get out and enjoy themselves, he said.

"People want to be able to have fun where they live," Schlotter said. "Certainly, these events lend that to families. I just think they're built that way. People are looking for things to do."

One parent had their kid urinate on our front lawn, and another tried to park with their car overhanging our driveway.

— Kimberly Schiller, of Oyster Bay

Yet for Schiller, Oyster Fest portends an onslaught of people and cars.

"My street, and the surrounding blocks, are overwhelmed with cars and traffic," said Schiller, 42, an English teacher.

"I even make sure to go to the supermarket the night before Oyster Fest or the Monday after just to avoid as much of it as I can," she said, adding that her husband doesn't leave the house all weekend during Oyster Fest.

In the 14 years she's lived in the hamlet, Schiller has only been to Oyster Fest twice. She and her husband were aware of the crowds before moving in, but it didn't impact their decision to live there.

"If we go, I always walk with my kids," she said. "The crowds on Audrey Avenue are manageable and there are local businesses that I always try to support along with food trucks and various fall displays."

Roosevelt Beach, Schiller said, is a different story.

"The crowd there is usually overwhelming and I don't get very far through the fest because of it. Typically, by that point, I've had enough and just want to go home," said Schiller.

Despite her concerns about the fest, Schiller accepts it is a reality of living in Oyster Bay and said she never considered moving because of the Oyster Fest — or any reason.

"Many of our community members work very hard to make the weekend a success and show off our quaint town beyond Sagamore Hill, and I think they do a great job," Schiller said.

Oyster Fest would definitely be one of the events that Signature Premier Properties broker Danielle Taylor would mention if she was trying to sell a home in the community. And having the fest there, she said, doesn't impact the time or effort it takes to sell a home there.

"I think the fact that we have Oyster Fest puts us on the map of places that people might be interested to move to," said Taylor, adding, "On every other day of the year, we don't have that traffic — nowhere near that traffic. We're open to having that day, but we also like the fact that we're kind of tucked away."

Ronkonkoma Street Fair: Like a giant block party

Living just a couple of houses away from the annual Lake Ronkonkoma Labor Day Street Fair — a one-day event featuring live entertainment, rides, food, and arts and crafts — Jose Fuentes always attends with his wife and three kids.

"I don't see it as a problem," said Fuentes, 56, a chauffeur.

Despite the fact that they close off Hawkins Avenue to traffic for the fair, Fuentes said he doesn't mind the inconvenience.

"I have a lot of cars on my block, but it's not a problem," Fuentes said.

I have a lot of cars on my block, but it's not a problem.

— Jose Fuentes, of Ronkonkoma

The fair typically attracts between 8,000 and 10,000 people, noted Ed McNamara, president of the Ronkonkoma Chamber of Commerce, which runs the annual event.

"It's considered the largest street fair on Long Island," McNamara said.

The Ronkonkoma annual street fair is like a giant block party, said Bryan Karp, an agent with Coldwell Banker American Homes.

"It's a great way for you to meet the entire community, because you really get all the residents from Ronkonkoma that come out," Karp said. "And then the best part is you get all the local businesses and even some of the big corporations get involved in it. It's a day to meet your neighbors."

Karp said he never schedules open houses that day because the area gets gridlocked and extremely difficult to traverse. Prospective buyers will ask about the duration of the fair, what roads it runs along and how long they're shut down. Yet, he said, the fair doesn't seem to impact home sales in the area and people seem to take the inconveniences in stride.

While he doubts that the fair impacts home prices, Karp said it does impart a sense of community.

"In today's environment where technology and screen time is such a huge piece of everyone's life, it's so nice to have a family-friendly event to look forward to in our community," Karp said.

Great South Bay Music Festival: A selling point for Patchogue

Whenever she sells a home near the shorefront, Heather Felice Keohan, an agent with Compass, makes sure to inform prospective buyers about concerts and other musical happenings, especially July's annual Great South Bay Music Festival, at Shorefront Park.

"They have the music festival there and also on Friday nights they'll have music in the bandshell," Felice Keohan said. "I always encourage my clients to walk down there with a picnic basket... I use that as a selling point."

Over the four-day period, the event brings in between 10,000 and 16,000 people, noted Jim Faith, founder and producer of the music festival.

Residents like the fact that the waterfront park is so close, Felice Keohan added.

"They can step outside their home and walk a couple of blocks and there's a whole full-fledged concert going on," Felice Keohan said. "I think they pay a premium to live close to the water, because they can access the docks."

It's about a mile from Patchogue's Main Street, where the village hosts Alive After Five with live entertainment, food and craft vendors on Thursday evenings in summer.

"Everybody I sell houses to in Patchogue loves the fact that on Thursday nights they can go downtown to Alive After Five," Felice Keohan said. "It greatly impacts the desirability to live in the village: all these different events that go on."

Felice Keohan conjectured that the festival, concerts and the other happenings in Patchogue village contribute to a greater sense of community and desirability to live in the area. In fact, she noted, her clients often seek homes that are close to Main Street for village events or Shorefront Park to be able to walk to the music festival.

"I think it greatly increases home values," Felice Keohan said, noting that community events increase demand, which raises prices.

We're just far enough away that it's not a disturbance.

— Jerry Kovarsky, of Patchogue

The Great South Bay Music Festival was a plus for Jerry Kovarsky. He had lived in Stony Brook for 14 years before moving to Maui, Hawaii, where he lived for nearly a decade. Then he moved back to the Island, settling about three years ago in Patchogue a few blocks from the festival site.

A semi-retired musician, Kovarsky, 67, attended the festival for the past two years.

"We're just far enough away that it's not a disturbance," said Kovarsky. "We could hear stuff in the distance, but it wasn't enough to bother us, and we enjoy that we're close enough to walk down to it."

Though traffic increases during the festival, the Kovarskys are far enough away that people don't park in front of their house.

"It wasn't a factor for us. If we were one of the houses on the first block just up from Shorefront Park, it might be a consideration," Kovarsky said, adding that's only one weekend out of the whole year. "If I lived that close and I thought it was a problem, I could be sure to go away on vacation for that week and not be bothered with it. So, there's a lot of ways to deal with it."

Plus, a big event that brings people into the community and helps boost business is actually a good thing, noted Kovarsky.

"You want to see your community thrive," he said.

Feast of St. Rocco: Four to five days of fun and food

For more than three decades, Gary Galante has been volunteering at the Feast of St. Rocco, a fiesta of food held each July around the Church of St. Rocco in Glen Cove, which features many food vendors and rides, and attracts about 50,000 over the course of the weekend. The feast will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, and began as a 6-day affair, evolved to 5 days and ran for 4 days this year.

"It's a wonderful community event," said Galante, 67, an optometrist who works and lives in Glen Cove.

"It brings a lot of people together," he said. "It's almost like a reunion for a lot of people in the neighborhood, because family members that you don't see will come to the feast and you'll see them once a year."

Galante just sold his father's childhood home, a two-family rental home, which is steps away from the feast.

The most recent downstairs tenant, who lived in the rental home for about 18 years, found the feast to be somewhat of an annoyance, Galante said. The upstairs tenants, however, who were there for seven years, loved having it nearby.

"In fact, they used to have family reunions in the driveway in the backyard during the feast sometimes," Galante said. "There's mixed feelings about it."

Mary Stanco, a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway, who's lived her whole life in Glen Cove and sold Galante's house, actually did a walk through with the buyers right in the middle of the fair. The house, which was on the market for 31 days, was listed for $749,888 and sold for $720,000.

"Glen Cove is like a destination," said Stanco, noting that the city also hosts other popular events, like National Night Out in August where kids learn about their local police department.

Shahriea Alam, 42, a software engineer, who bought Galante's house, liked the location, the neighborhood's diversity and proximity to the train station, and even that the carnival was right outside her door.

"The kids enjoyed it very much, so I like it, too," said Alam, who plans to attend next year.