Highlights from the Summer Calendar

By Nis Kildegaard

June, July, August and September are the high season for visitors to the Vineyard, and of these, July and August are the true royalty, filled with events that Vineyard residents and visitors await from year to year. Some of these celebrations are summer's hottest tickets - events that can be counted upon to sell out early. Others are open to all comers - indeed, part of their charm is the way they draw sociable throngs to mingle on an Island where solitude is one of the most charming attractions of all.

Here, then, are the highlights of summer on Martha's Vineyard. For visitors, these events are favorite dates to plan vacations around. For year-round Vineyarders, they are festive and familiar milestones on the passage through the busy season.

Taste of the Vineyard
The festivities of Island summer get under way early with every gourmet's favorite Island event, the Taste of the Vineyard, in June. The Island's finest restaurants, caterers and purveyors of beverages gather on the lawn of the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown to offer the Island's best foods, wines and hand-crafted beers for the benefit of the Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust. The Taste of the Vineyard is definitely one of summer's hot tickets, granting you admission to an event that supports a good cause, deliciously.

Perennial Favorites:
Farmers' Market and the Flea
June is the month of shakedown cruises for some of summer's most popular weekly events. The Farmers' Market at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury, a festival of freshness from flowers to vegetables, begins its run of Saturday mornings mid-June and its season of Wednesdays typically begins about two weeks later. The Chilmark Flea Market follows roughly   the same schedule.

Fireworks on the Fourth
July kicks things up a notch, opening grandly with the festivities of Independence Day in Edgartown. The parade down Main street starts at 5 pm. Expect to see Edgartown firemen pulling their antique Button Tub engine and squirting the crowd, and don't be surprised if the rowdy denizens of Camp Jabberwocky, the Island's summer cerebral palsy camp, win the prize for Best Float.

Happy Birthday, Tisbury!
On July 8, the town of Vineyard Haven closes its Main street and turns it into a teeming party scene to mark its birthday with the Tisbury Street Fair. Townspeople tried making this event one of those moveable celebrations, like Presidents Day, but ultimately decided that since July 8 is Tisbury's birthday, July 8 it is. If you like lobster rolls, face painting, dunking booths and mobs of people, this is the event for you. (To avoid the traffic jam, consider parking at the Island high school and catching a shuttle bus to and from the festivities.)

Portuguese-American Feast
On July 18 and 19, the heritage of the Island's sturdy Portuguese settlers is celebrated in the Feast of the Holy Ghost on the grounds of the Portuguese-American Club in Oak Bluffs. The rich kale soup called Sopa is a mainstay of this event, and so is the sense of pride and history. Everyone is welcome.

A Monster Fishing Event
An event which has exploded onto the Island's summer calendar in terms of sheer popularity is the Monster Shark Fishing Tournament, being held this year July 23 to 25. Thousands of people line the Oak Bluffs Harbor at the end of the day to see amazing specimens measured and weighed in. It's worth noting that the vast majority of fish caught in this event are released, and that important scientific data is collected in the course of the tournament. Several sharks landed in this contest have set new world records for the International Game Fishing Association.

Auction of Dreams
If you prefer the sight of celebrities you won't want to miss the Martha's Vineyard Community Services Possible Dreams Auction. The premise of this annual event,  is simple: Offer up for auction a set of prizes that absolutely aren't for sale anywhere else, at any price. A private sailing trip with Walter Cronkite aboard his yacht and a personal serenade by Carly Simon have been among the top bid-winners in years past. This event is traditionally held in early to mid-August.

Summer's Grand Finale:
Fair, Fireworks and Illumination Night
Finally in the third week of August, like a symphonic crescendo, the Island's most festive season builds to its peak. It's that remarkable moment when summer literally goes out with a bang, punctuated by the spectacular fireworks over Ocean Park, Oak Bluffs (this year on the night of Friday, August 21). Surrounding that grand exclamation point are two more events rich in Island history, Illumination Night on August 19 and the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair from August 20 to 23.

Illumination Night is a program of the Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting Association, which started a tradition of summer religious retreats in what is now the town of Oak Bluffs more than a century and a half ago. At the center of the association's property is the grand, wrought-iron Tabernacle building, and around the Tabernacle are a remarkable collection of small cottages built in the gingerbread style now recognized as Campground Gothic Revival. After a program of music, a ceremonial lantern is lit in the darkened Tabernacle and at that signal, hundreds more are lit all through the historic Campground. This event draws such a throng each year that the association has taken to scheduling it during the Agricultural Fair just to thin the crowds a bit.

For the four days of the Agricultural Fair the Island has a special adage: All roads lead to West Tisbury. Last year, record numbers of fairgoers walked through the  gates to enjoy the midway rides, food, music, demonstrations and exhibit hall full of all things agricultural - from home-baked muffins to giant pumpkins and sunflowers. For Island visitors and residents alike, the fair is not only a wonderful social gathering but a reminder of this community's rich agricultural heritage and enduring connection to the land.

Choices, Choices
What did we leave out? The whole concert season of the Martha's Vineyard Chamber Music Society and the theatrical season of the Vineyard Playhouse; the summer run of Vineyard Artisan Fairs at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury; the stimulating programs of the Community Center in Chilmark and the Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven, and a host of others. But these highlights should be enough to suggest that summers on Martha's Vineyard are so filled with festivities, you'll be hard-pressed to pick a week without a memorable celebration or two.