Riverhead Country Fair is canceled this year, the 50th anniversary of its founding

The Riverhead Country Fair will not take place this year, the 50th anniversary of the popular event’s founding in 1976. 

The country fair committee announced the cancellation in a Facebook post Tuesday. The committee has decided to put the country fair “on hold until the downtown construction is completed,” the post said.

“We have no place to be,” Sue Young, who serves on the board of directors of Riverhead Townscape, which produces the October event, said in a phone interview. 

Construction of downtown buildings on the south side of East Main Street makes use of the East End Arts Council grounds and the eastern portion of the Peconic River parking lot infeasible, Young said. The green space of the East End Arts campus hosts the agriculture and homemakers competitions and displays, while the carnival is held in the eastern area of the parking lot. Both of those sites will very soon become or be in close proximity to construction zones.  

The buildings on the grounds of the East End Arts campus are slated to be relocated this fall, as part of the town square project. 

“We decided it really wasn’t safe,” Young said.

“It’s sad, and none of the committee really wanted to do it,” she said, “but we felt we kind of had no choice this year.”

It’s not clear when the fair might be able to return, or whether the future configuration of the arts council campus or the riverfront parking lot — where a playground is planned —will provide space for the fair after construction is completed, Young said.

The country fair committee had extensive discussion and carefully considered all options around town, including some suggested by town officials. Young declined to say which officials fair committee members spoke with.  The committee discussed several alternatives officials suggested and others that committee members tossed around. Among them were  the parking lot on Railroad Avenue, West Second Street and the parking lot behind Town Hall and the streets of Polish Town, where the town’s other big street fair is held every summer. 

Someone suggested the property of the Long Island Antique Power Association on Sound Avenue just west of Hallockville Museum Farm. “But you know what Sound Avenue is like in October,” Young said, referring to the bumper-to-bumper traffic that clogs the narrow roadway, particularly on Columbus Day weekend, when the fair is held. Another person suggested the EPCAL site. 

“But the country fair was started to bring business to downtown Riverhead, and that’s where we want to keep it,” Young said.

“I’ve been doing this [fair] for 40 years, and I think Bruce [her husband] has been doing it for 41 or 42 years,” Young said. “It’s depressing.”

Does this mark the end of an era? Young wouldn’t speculate about the event’s long term future.

“It was a really tough decision, because, you know how much we love the fair,” she said. “I mean, everybody loves the fair.”

A local favorite and one of the largest fairs in New York State, the Riverhead Country Fair features craft vendors, food, local craft spirits, live entertainment, carnival rides and midway games. It typically draws thousands each year to downtown Riverhead.

The fair as we know it was founded by Riverhead Townscape, an organization established during the American bicentennial year of 1976 to beautify downtown Riverhead. It is held annually on the Sunday of Columbus Day weekend.

But the event is a Riverhead staple that can trace its roots all the way back to the 1840s. From the 1840s until some time during the Great Depression, Riverhead had hosted the annual Suffolk County Agricultural Society Fair at the Suffolk County Fair Grounds, on property off Pulaski Street — later sold to the Riverhead school district. After the Depression it was held “only erratically” until the group of residents who founded Townscape decided in 1976 to resurrect the event, longtime country fair organizer Jim Lull told RiverheadLOCAL in 2010. 

The Riverhead County Fair typically takes place rain or shine. But last year, with a nor’easter bearing down on the region, the fair committee decided to cancel the event. With its cancellation this year and likely continued disruption in the next few years, organizers will have to work hard to revive it, Young acknowledged — if there is even a place for it downtown.

“Maybe we’ll come back bigger and better. Maybe we’ll fail. We don’t know,” Young said.  “It is very sad. But we have to do what’s best for everybody. And unfortunately, that was the decision that was made.”