By Lori Wysong
News Editor
At a time of year when people are pulling out their fall and winter wardrobes, the boats are preparing for the cool weather as well.
This weekend Oct. 26 through 28, the Chestertown harbor will fill with tall ships getting ready for winter at the eighteenth annual Downrigging Festival.
Kate Livie, humanities faculty for Chesapeake Semester 2018, is also Director of Development and Communications for the Sultana Education Foundation, what sponsors the event.
“We’ve grown from an event that was basically the schooner Sultana and the Pride of Baltimore spending an afternoon racing on the Chester River before they took their rigging off for the wintertime, to this really large premier east coast wooden boat festival,” Livie said.
Chestertown Town Manager Bill Ingersoll said that the Sultana Foundation prepares for the festival for months in advance.
The festival will kick off Friday night, with dockside tours of many of the tall ships, and a lighting ceremony with a fireworks display.
According to Livie, over the course of the weekend, around 2,500 people will sail in these ships.
“It really is one of the largest sailing events on the east coast,” she said.
The schooner Virginia will be at the festival for the first time in five years, adding to the number of impressive ships in the festival.
Chestertown Mayor Chris Cerino, who is also Vice President of the Sultana Education Foundation, said that “Over the course of the weekend, there will be four separate occasions where all of the ships will go out sailing together. If the weather cooperates, this is a truly spectacular sight.”
One event unique to this year’s festival is the unveiling of the completed work at the Chestertown marina.
According to Cerino, the marina “has undergone extensive renovations and now features new docks, new boardwalks, a new Marina Center, new lighting, and new foot paths for pedestrians.”
“It’s a great opportunity for anybody who can remember how dilapidated the marina space used to be to come down and enjoy this gorgeous new facility,” Livie said.
Ingersoll and Livie said that one key aspect of the festival is the participation of local businesses.
“One of the neat things about the festival is that it doesn’t just include the waterfront, it really extends all the way into downtown Chestertown,” Livie said.
This year, Book Plate will have a talk on Gilbert Byron, known as the “Voice of the Chesapeake,” a famous poet who grew up in Chestertown.
The Sultana Education Foundation building will host a spoken word performance on memories of growing up in a waterman’s community.
According to Livie, the Garfield Center for the Arts will be presenting a play inspired by enslaved Africans coming over on a Dutch man-of-war, “dealing with the complex history of these different tall ships and the way that they were employed for good and for bad in the past.”
“There are tons of new lectures, musical events, and art exhibits happening all over town,” Cerino said, “so be sure to come check it out.”
Livie said that the Downrigging Festival is an opportunity to see the town “at its best,” and that it is “ a wonderful kickoff to true fall in the Chesapeake in a way that celebrates a connection to the water, which is really what Chestertwon is all about.”
For more information about the 2018 Downrigging Festival events and activities, visit the Sultana Education Foundation Website at http://sultanaeducation.org.