Tivoli Day Celebrates 25th Anniversary

By BRETT FERRY

The hot, busy months of summer offer working Islanders a short
window of opportunity to hustle a year's earnings.

When the close of the season nears, few year-round residents can
recall taking a relaxed afternoon stroll through Oak Bluffs - they
only remember scurrying up and down the street, head down, dodging
tourists and trying to get quickly where they needed to go.

The end of the madness of summer was celebrated along Circuit avenue
on Saturday at the 25th annual Tivoli Day festival.

The street was closed to traffic so businesses and groups from all
over town, and elsewhere on the Island, could set up sidewalk displays
to peddle their wares.

At the bottom of the street, the Dunkl brothers were selling bottles
of their Chilmark Spring Water. On a hot late-summer day, wise
festival-goers purchased water to prepare for a couple hundred yards of
good food and sale prices.

"Bargain fever," said one young lady who observed Stuart
Robinson's street-side operation.

A large, energized fellow known to many as the "flea market
man," Mr. Robinson set out crates of what he called junk. Patrons
rifled through the boxes and held up items such as bungee cords and
kitchen utensils. Standing at least a head above everyone else, the
vendor would point to the items and bark out a price, "Six
dollars. Two for seven."

Mr. Robinson purchases closeout items off-Island and tries to move
his goods at flea markets and street fairs on-Island.

Reggae music pumping from Neptune's Grill set an easy-going
pulse at the bottom of the street. The snack bar employees, too, brought
their wares streetside, offering cups of seafood chowder and fried
calamari.

T-shirt shops, perhaps sensing an end to the seasonal tourist rush,
slashed prices to near pocket change, offering Vineyard shirts for $4
and caps for $6 - deep discounts from the regular prices.

Rebecca Everett, a Vineyard painter, displayed giclee prints of her
colorful and detailed oil paintings of several Vineyard scenes.

"I don't know if it's the best venue for an
artist," she said. "It's only my second year doing it.
I have sold some prints and generated some interest."

Approaching the crest of the street, people were lured to the Smoke
‘n' Bones table by the wafting sweet smell of barbecued
ribs. The long line and busy crew proved that not too many resisted the
aroma.

Across the street Season's Pub was preparing pulled pork and
Mexican chicken wraps. More reggae music blared from a sound system
behind them. The avenue felt like a Caribbean marketplace.

Down the backside of the street more racks of goods sported
"half off" signs. The reggae beat began to fade out and Doug
Peckham's voice took over: "This is the big one. This is the
one they're buzzing about," he told the crowds.

Mr. Peckham was relentlessly promoting a raffle to support COMSOG,
the community solar greenhouse. First prize was a watercolor painting
- his own - of a Vineyard seascape.

"He found it," Mr. Peckham said with joy as one man
stepped up to buy a raffle ticket. "This is the buzz."

"We're having more fun than any other group out
here," said Diane Ball, who sold raffle tickets.

Throughout the afternoon, families indulged in hot dogs and ice
cream. Vineyard artisans young and old displayed their work, from
photography to wool sweaters.

A young girl looked up to a four-foot-tall Betty Boop statue on the
sidewalk, and said to her younger brother, "I wish we were the
richest people in the world and mommy would buy this for me."

At the end of Circuit avenue, musicians Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish
attempted to find some shade under a sidewalk tree. Folks who had been
meandering down the street congregated at the end while the local
bluesmen wailed their honky-tonk tunes to the crowd. Many kids hearing
them for the first time caught the vibe and danced into the streets.

Unimpressed with bargains or deals, the kids relished in the soulful
sounds under a hot September sun.