Poe Festival canceled but downtown Halloween parade will go on

The Edgar Allan Poe Festival has been canceled this year.

The late-October weekend festival — held downtown close to Halloween the past two years — is off after the Business Improvement District and the festival organizers Sal and Mary St. George could not come to terms, Riverhead BID Management Association president Steven Shauger said today.

The BID is looking to host a Halloween parade, which will likely take place on the evening of Saturday Oct. 29, Shauger said. It will also host downtown trick-or-treating that afternoon, he said.

“Our goal is to have the trick-or-treating in the afternoon from 2 to 5 p.m., then take a quick break where attendees can enjoy dinner specials at participating downtown restaurants,” Shauger said this afternoon. “The parade is slated to start at 6:30 which would make it easy for people to go see the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Suffolk Theater or attend the Masquerade Ball at the Aquarium,” he said.

Details will be finalized at the BID Management Association board meeting on Wednesday, according to Shauger.

A night-time costumed parade down Main Street during Poe Fest weekend was a popular part of the festival weekend, drawing a few hundred people to Main Street to watch the parade and dozens more costumed revelers to march in it. The festival also included Edgar Allan Poe-themed decorations, readings of his works, performances and trick-or-treating.

Sal and Mary St. George of St. George Productions have notified the BID that they will not produce the Poe festival this year, Shauger said.

“They had to make a tough decision and didn’t feel like specific terms of our contract met the needs of their business,” Shauger said.

The BIDMA president did not elaborate on the “specific terms” that gave rise to the problem.

Town Supervisor Sean Walter said he understood the organizers were unable or unwilling to comply with the town’s insurance requirements.

Deputy Town Attorney Dan McCormick said the town requires organizers to indemnify the town as well as provide a liability insurance certificate naming the Town of Riverhead as additional insured. This year, a new provision was added to require the insurance to include “primary and noncontributory” coverage, McCormick said. That means the organizer’s coverage is “first and only” coverage should there be damage to property or injury to person as a result of the organizer’s negligence, he said.

The town is self-insured for the first $250,000 in liability — which increased this year from the previous $150,000 deductible, McCormick said. Since a municipality is considered a “deep pockets” defendant by plaintiffs, the town needs to make sure it can’t be held liable for the organizer’s negligence.

McCormick said he spoke to the organizer’s insurance representative and learned it would cost them an additional $100 to provide. The BIDMA and the town agreed to change the contract with St. George to increase the payment by $100 to cover that cost, he said.

The attorney said he never heard anything further from St. George’s insurance representative and was unaware there was any problem with the requirement.

Mary St. George confirmed this morning that the festival had been canceled but deferred to her husband Sal for comment. He was not available for a phone interview this morning, she said.

According to town documents available online, the contract payment to St. George Living History Productions for a three-day festival in 2014 was $11,000. In 2015 it was increased to $12,500.

This year the festival was scaled back to two days and the payment to St. George was reduced to $7,000, McCormick said.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect additional details about the Halloween parade and other events being planned for Oct. 29, which were provided by BID Management Association president Steve Shauger after publication.