FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 10

6:30 pm Old Fashioned Clambake and Silent Auction

Whaling Museum

Lobsters, clams, corn and live music. And it’s a benefit for the largest repository of Sag Harbor artifacts. This traditional clambake will help raise needed funds to maintain the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum, a building that is in fact at the heart of Sag Harbor history, both emotionally and physically. There are plenty of napkins and plenty of cold beer, wine and soda to help you with your meal, which also includes clams, mussels, chicken and potatoes. And to make the evening even more exciting, there will be a silent auction, so you might be able to go home with something to remember your weekend. In past years it has included art as well historic memorabilia. $75.

8 pm Film: Lifeboat

Bay Street Theatre

A group of British and American passengers from a sunken ship and crew members from the German U Boat that sank it during WWII struggle to survive in the Atlantic in a lifeboat. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock with a script by John Steinbeck, the film stars Tallulah Bankhead, Willam Bendix and Walter Slezak. $5.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 11

9 am Farmers Market

Long Wharf

The South Fork has long built a reputation as one of the greatest providers of fresh produce and shellfish in the state, with farms stretching from the hilly moraine to the shores of the Atlantic. In recent years there has been a revived interest in hand-crafted, or slow, foods and this year the Sag Harbor Farmer’s Market brings you a collection of farmers and purveyors with some very special items from the farm fields and local bays. Among the items for sale will be fresh organic vegetables, locally made cheeses, oysters, clams, mushrooms and fresh bread and pastries. To 4 pm.

9 am Arts & Crafts Fair

Long Wharf

The East End enjoys a reputation for having some of the most talented artisans and craftspeople on Long Island. This weekend, many of them will set up their booths and tables on Long Wharf for visitors to examine and purchase. Among the items will be fine art paintings, water colors and photographs, pottery, needlework and jewelry. To 4 pm.

9:30 am Festival Parade

Main Street

Starting off the festivities on Saturday morning will be the Gala Festival Parade, one that highlights the best of living in a small town with dozens of the village’s organizations represented. The parade kicks off from the intersection of Palmer Terrace and Main Street and continues down Main Street to Bay Street, ending at the American Legion. Look for floats and banners from many local organizations, scout groups, bands and the Sag Harbor Fire Department’s finest in this decidedly local parade sponsored by the Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce.

10 am Sidewalk Sale

Main Street

The village’s shops and restaurants are invited to bring out their wares to the great outdoors. Clothing, books, collectibles, and even a burger or a slice of pizza to enjoy as you stroll along Main Street shopping in the open air. To 4 pm.

10 am Refreshments al Fresco

Long Wharf

Throughout the day there will be a variety of food options, including a taste of the best from local restaurants, caterers and wineries, hot dogs and sodas from the scouts and snacks to satisfy your hunger as you stroll through the craft fair and watch the annual whaleboat races. To 4 pm.

10 am Coast Guard Boat

Long Wharf

Conditions permitting, the U.S. Coast Guard station in Montauk will bring a deep sea rescue boat to Long Wharf this weekend. For those who are understandably fascinated with how our Coast Guard conducts emergency rescues, service men and women will be available for a tour of the craft and to answer your questions.

10 am Face Painting and Karaoke

Long Wharf

Oh, c’mon, we know you’ve always wanted to walk up and down Main Street looking like a cat or a monkey. Well, at least your kids do. This year HarborFest brings a face painter down to Long Wharf to help bring out the inner animal. It’s a benefit for the Pierson Thespians, the local high school theatrical group. To 4 pm.

10 am Classic Boat Display

Long Wharf

For enthusiasts of fine vessels, several classic boats — from skiffs to sailboats — will be on display along Long Wharf courtesy of the East End Classic Boat Society. The Society has also built a new community boathouse in Amagansett, and membership applications will be available this weekend. Special this year will be the recently completed Catspaw Dinghy, a 12’8” boat designed by Joel White after Herreshoff’s Columbia Dinghy. The Society will be selling raffles to win it. To 4 pm.

10 am Children’s Story Time

John Jermain Memorial Library

Stories and songs of the sea.

10 am Coast Guard Inspections/Knot Tying

Long Wharf

The Coast Guard Auxiliary will be offering free boat inspections over the weekend at the floating dock adjacent to Long Wharf. You can have a trained Auxiliarist discuss the required and recommended boating equipment for your vessel — lights, placards, numbering, visual distress signals, fire extinguishers, etc. Dock slips can accommodate vessels up to 32-feet.

Members of the Auxiliary will also be available to demonstrate tying the various knots mariners should know. To 3 pm.

10:30 am Portraits With an Antique Car

Annie Cooper Boyd House

Bring the kids and bring a camera. The Sag Harbor Historical Society invites you down to dress up in period costume with period props and pose with a classic car. While your there, visit the exhibit on the history of Long Beach. To 4 pm.

10:30 am Walking Tour: Maritime Sag Harbor

Meet at Windmill

This tour explores Sag Harbor’s waterfront and the storied people and businesses that helped the community emerge as a dominant whaling port of the 19^th century. From its earliest days as a port for trade, helping the farmers of the South Fork move their produce up and down the coast, when clipper ships plied the Atlantic, to its days when whaling voyages started out past Cedar Point for years at a time and the shoreline here was bustling with coopers and stores and sailmakers, to the recent commercial and industrial past when Mobil tankers would bring oil to the tank farm on Bay Street, to today, when million-dollar yachts sidle up to Long Wharf, the waterfront has defined the village.

11 am American Beauty Tour

Long Wharf

Sometimes you have to get off dry land to appreciate the place you came from. Capt. Don Heckman takes visitors aboard his tour ship, “American Beauty” for a cruise through local waters. Along the way Capt. Heckman will speak about the natural and historical evolution of Sag Harbor and its surrounding communities, from the time in the 1600s when merchants shipped their goods from Northwest landing to the time in the 1700s when Sag Harbor became a bustling port, to today when the harbor has evolved into one of the most popular destinations along the eastern seaboard.

11 am Corn Shucking Contest

Long Wharf

The kids are invited down to Long Wharf to see who can peel an ear of corn the fastest.

11:30 am Concert: John Corr

Long Wharf

A master of traditional seafaring music who welcomes a good old sing-along. To 1 pm.

11:30 am Old Burying Ground Tour

Old Burying Ground

Hosted by the Committee for the Old Burying Ground, this tour through the village’s oldest cemetery takes visitors past the graves and tells the stories of some of Sag Harbor’s earliest residents, including whaling captains and Revolutionary War heroes.

12 Annual Whalers Cup Whaleboat Races

Windmill Beach

The guys on those whaling ships had to do something for fun. We bet they raced their whaleboats when things were slow and right whales were hard to come by. Our version pits teams of four against each other, including two rowers, a tiller-man and a harpoonist (no, they don’t actually harpoon anything).

In men’s and women’s divisions, the teams compete over two days, on a triangular course of about two hundred yards. It’s on the last frantic leg along the Long Wharf where the cheering from hundreds of spectators who traditionally line up on the wharf reaches a fever pitch, as fans of all teams try to help carry their boat home.

Elimination heats run on Saturday and finals run on Sunday. Expected to be back to defend their titles, and the right to have their names emblazoned on the coveted Whalers Cup — presented courtesy of the Sag Harbor Express  — will be Team Whalers in the Men’s Division and Sag Harbor Liquors in the Women’s Division.

12 Historic Walking Tour of Eastville and Food Tasting

Eastville Community Heritage House

The Eastville Community Historical Society will welcome guests along on a walking tour through the Eastville area including St. David’s church, at one time a stop on the fabled Underground Railroad, and its 19th century graveyard, the recently restored  Eastville Community Heritage House (a Sears Roebuck kit house from the 1920s), and several historic homes in the area. There will also be a tasting of traditional African-American and Native-American foods. To 3 pm. $5.

12 Film: Joyeusse Garde: Steinbeck in Sag Harbor

Bay Street Theatre

The celebrated Pulitzer- and Nobel-prize wining author John Steinbeck spent the last years of his life living part-time in Sag Harbor, and it was here where he wrote two of his best-known books: “The Winter of Our Discontent” and “Travels With Charley.” He was also know locally as one of the founders of the Old Whalers Festival, the precursor to today’s Sag HarborFest, and was instrumental in bringing the International Whaleboat Races to the village during the festival in the 1960s. This brief documentary by Tom Browngardt looks back on Steinbeck’s days here, and includes interviews with local residents who knew him well, and rare home movies of the author aboard his boat. Continuously to 4 pm.

1 pm Concert: Community Band Concert

Long Wharf

Many small villages in the last century enjoyed having community bands to play at special events. Keeping with that tradition, Sag Harbor once had a coronet band, and since 1957 has had The Community Band. Playing popular and unusual marches and other band music.

1 pm Concert: Shanna Roe Polly and Friends

John Jermain Memorial Library

Contemporary folk music.

1 pm American Beauty Tour

Long Wharf

2 pm Art Walk on Gallery Row

Starts at Windmill

Sag Harbor has long been a place that has embraced the arts and writers, actors, painters and sculptors have all found their way here. As a result, the art scene in the village is a lively one. Join your fellow art lovers on this stroll down Main Street and the side streets to take in works by local and nationally-recognized artists as many galleries open their doors for special exhibits. To 4 pm.

2 pm Art Opening

John Jermain Memorial Library

Featuring the art of Christine Chew Smith.

3 pm Annual Whalers Cup Whaleboat Races

Windmill Beach

3 pm American Beauty Tour

Long Wharf

5 pm Hike to Cedar Point Light

Meet at Cedar Point Pak Parking Lot, East Hampton

The great-grandson of the last keeper of the light leads a hike out to the point, talking about the history of the light and efforts to restore it. Watch thesun go down, then hike back guided with lanterns.

6 pm LVIS Cocktail Party

Breakwater Yacht Club

After a hectic day shopping, racing whaleboats and taking in art, stop over to the Breakwater Yacht Club on Bay Street to enjoy sunset cocktails and hors d’ouvres on the club’s deck with the charming ladies who keep our downtown so beautiful. The Ladies Village Improvement Society devotes its time to making the village look inviting, including hanging the bountiful baskets of flowers from our antique lamp posts and planting around the Main Street flagpole, and other important and highly visible locations. $50.

7 pm Jazz Concert

Old Whalers Church

Featuring the Bay Burger Jam Session Band and Mambo Loco in a benefit for Sag Harbor’s Presbyterian church. $25.

8 pm Film: East of Eden

Bay Street Theatre

Based on the novel by John Steinbeck (who also helped write the screenplay), the film about a young man’s rivalry with his brother, set in early 20^th century California, stars James Dean and Julie Harris. $5.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 12

8 am Pancake Breakfast

Main Firehouse

Everyone is invited back to the Main Firehouse on Sunday morning for a breakfast of flapjacks. A good way to start off a busy day is with a filling breakfast.

8 am HarborFest 5K

Redwood

The third annual Harborfest 5K in Sag Harbor is open to runners of all ages and will start at near the intersection of Howard Street and Long Island Avenue, close to the Beacon Restaurant and Baron’s Cove Inn.

Jim Kinnier, coach of the Pierson girls’ varsity cross-country team, has organized the race program. Proceeds from the event will benefit the girls’ team. The team travels to invitational meets in Florida and Rhode Island during the fall and the funds raised will go towards travel expenses. Registration $20.

9 am Farmers Market

Long Wharf

Local produce and farm products. To 4 pm.

9 am Arts & Crafts Fair

Long Wharf

Local artisans. To 4 pm.

9:30 Pilates on the Beach

Want a little stretch and tone to get you in shape for the busy day ahead (think walking tours, whaleboat races, clam shucking)? Join us on the beach near the windmill on Sunday morning to catch the early morning sun and do a little Pilates.

10 am Sidewalk Sale

Main Street

Stores show their wares. To 4 pm.

10 am Refreshments al Fresco

Long Wharf

Food and beverages. To 4 pm

10 am Classic Boat Display

Long Wharf

Wooden-crafted vessels. To 4 pm.

10:30 am Walking Tour: Women’s Lives

This tour will visit houses (mostly) of women who have been born or lived in Sag Harbor. Some famous, some not so, but all interesting. Among them are Sag Harbor’s great benefactress Mrs. Russell Sage, Lady Caroline Blackwood, Anna Elizabeth Westfall, who ran a finishing school for girls from her home on Howard St.; Mary Breck Sleight, the author of Flag on the Mill-Ship in the Bay; Martha Smith Brown, a whaling captain’s wife who sailed with her husband and wrote an extensive diary and author Betty Friedan.

11:30 am Concert: Sampawan’s Creek

With long hours spent aboard ships rocking in the waves, early whalers made up songs both for rest and for work. Sampawan’s Creek will favor our guests with a number of traditional songs as they sing near the windmill on Saturday. To 3:30 pm.

11:30 am Tug-O-War

Before whaleboat racing action starts up again on Sunday, we invite all the kids in the crowd down onto the beach for a good old fashioned contest. We’ll divide the kids up (boys vs. girls is pretty popular, or choose up teams) and get them involved in a challenging tug-o-war.

11:30 am The Antiques Appraisal Dock Show

Sag Harbor Yacht Club

Free antique and collectible appraisals at the annual Antique Appraisals Dockshow returns to Sag HarborFest  for its tenth season with local dealers providing on-the-spot consultations and informal appraisals of antiques and collectibles at the Sag Harbor Yacht Club. Antique owners are asked to bring only two articles to be appraised. To 1 pm.

12 Whaleboat Races Semifinals

Windmill Beach

Come down, cheer on your favorite team and see who will make it into the finals.

12 Clam Chowder Contest

Who makes the best clam chowder in Sag Harbor? That’s what this contest seeks to answer and you get to help decide. All the local restaurants have been invited to participate so buy a mug for the opportunity to taste all the different chowders. After you’ve finished, cast your vote for your favorite. The winner gets bragging rights and a neat pewter mug. Both New England and Manhattan varieties are on the block; thick and creamy versus lush and tangy. Last year’s winners were The New Paradise Café and Claws on Wheels. $8.

1 pm Waldo the Clown

Long Wharf

Bring the kids down for some clowning around. To 3 pm.

1 pm Rubber Ducky Race

Under the Bridge

A flotilla of rubber ducks will race on the incoming tide beneath the bridge connecting Sag Harbor and North Haven. Pick a number and if you duck comes in, you could be a winner. A benefit for the L/Cpl. Jordan Haerter Memorial Fund.

1:30 pm Oakland Cemetery Tour

Oakland Cemetery

After Sag Harbor’s Old Burying Ground was filled to capacity, the community opened Oakland Cemetery in the early 19th century. While it is still very much in use today, it holds some old and interesting surprises. There are buried there Captain David Hand — the model for James Fenimore Cooper’s Natty Bumpo — and his five (yes, five) wives; there is the stunning Broken Mast Monument, which honors many of the young local captains who died in the pursuit of whales; and the cemetery is also the final resting place of the famed dancer George Balanchine, who likened the cemetery to those in the French countryside.

2 pm Firefighters Cup Whaleboat Races

Windmill Beach

The third annual HarborFest Firefighter Cup races features teams from local fire departments. Expected to be back to defend their title this year will be a team from Sag Harbor’s Gazelle Hose Company.

2 pm Tour Temple Adas Israel

Temple Adas Israel

Take an hour and learn about Long Island’s oldest synagogue.

3 pm Whaleboat Races Championship

Windmill Beach

See who gets to take home the Whalers Cup.

3:30 pm Clam Shucking Contest

Long Wharf

After the last oar from the whaleboat races has hit the water, the festival comes to a fevered conclusion with what has grown to be one of its most popular events: the contest to determine Shucker of the Year, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. Last year almost twenty shuckers took bivalve in hand and Denise O’Malley took top honors.

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