Riverhead's Alive on 25 Street Festival Faces Uncertain Future in 2026

Closing East Main Street for Alive on 25 costs Riverhead between $17,000 and $19,000 in police coverage per event, and with Town Square blocked by the Petrocelli Hotel construction and West Second Street's capacity in question, the Riverhead Town Board emerged from a March 26 work session with no consensus on whether the signature summer street festival can return this year.

Councilman Bob Kern put the policing cost on record and said he would not support another Friday-night event at that price. Kern noted that Police Chief Ed Frost has expressed a preference for centering future events in Town Square, where enforcement demands would be lower, but that location remains unavailable until construction on the Petrocelli Hotel and surrounding infrastructure is complete. Kern also questioned whether West Second Street, the only alternative footprint raised at the session, is long enough to accommodate a festival of Alive on 25's scale.

Council Member Joann Waski brought the issue before the board after speaking with Diane Tucci, who produced Alive on 25 in 2025 following the Riverhead Business Improvement District Management Association's decision to step back from the event. According to Waski, Tucci proposed shifting the festival to Thursdays rather than a Friday or Saturday night, reasoning that a midweek date could pull customers downtown on a slower business night.

Supervisor Jerry Halpin arrived at the session with doubts already in hand. The previous day he had attended a meeting with representatives of the Riverhead BID Management Association, the Riverhead Chamber of Commerce, and the East End Arts Council. The "general sentiment" among those groups, Halpin told the board, was that Alive on 25 might not be the best use of town resources in a year already packed with programming: America 250 events, a cardboard boat race, the Mosaic Street-Painting Festival, and Halloween Fest are all on Riverhead's 2026 calendar. Some participants told Halpin the festival failed to benefit brick-and-mortar businesses enough to justify the disruption, and that food trucks may have drawn spending away from local restaurants. He said he received similar feedback from others connected to the organizations.

Council Member Ken Rothwell offered the sharpest counterargument. "Over the past years, restaurants like Digger's, it's one of the few nights that you can't get a table. And Cucina and all the other downtown restaurants, they flourish during Alive on 25," he said. Rothwell argued the festival lifts businesses both on and off the main drag and cautioned that shelving it would ultimately cost Main Street more than the police detail.

No vote was taken on March 26. Town officials and the BID will continue discussions as summer planning deadlines approach, with a decision expected within weeks. If the festival goes dark this summer, the restaurants on East Main Street stand to lose one of their most reliable high-volume nights, with nothing comparable on the 2026 calendar to fill the gap.