Musicians frustrated with Dock Dance resolution

The fate of Dock Dance, Edgartown’s weekly free outdoor concert at Memorial Wharf, has been up in the air for the past few weeks, with a disagreement between town officials and organizers about the timing of the popular event.

Members of the Dock Dance Band and the town are currently struggling to reach a compromise on a start time, after town officials moved the concert up an hour — from 7 pm to 6 pm on Tuesdays — to try to mitigate behavior resulting from underage drinking.

The time change implemented by the Edgartown select board, however, has frustrated band members, many of whom work late up-Island, and won’t be able to make the performance. Different bands played Tuesday night instead.

“I don’t believe anyone on that board actually appreciates what I’m doing down there the way they’re pushing us around like this,” Alex Karalekas, Dock Dance Band member, said.

The band, which has performed at Dock Dance for the past 15 years, is keeping a half-century-old tradition alive, Karalekas said. And they aren’t paid for their performances. Now they’re not sure they’ll be able to play for the rest of the summer.

Complaints originally came to the board by way of Peter Wells, president and co-owner of the Chappy Ferry, who said a number of his staff complained that concertgoers were using his employees’ parking area to urinate, and would do so often on their cars. He made suggestions to the town to mitigate such behavior, including an earlier start time. He has since changed his position on the subject. Wells is satisfied with the original start time with Edgartown Police increasing their presence in the area, and after coordinating the installation of a portable toilet on concert days.

“A dock dance was held prior to the select board meeting at which my suggestions were considered. It ran from 7 to 9 PM. With increased police presence and the availability of a bathroom, the event caused no concerns for the Chappy Ferry crew,” Wells wrote in an email to the board. “Given the success of that evening, changing the time is not necessary to accomplishing the intended result, but will however create a difficulty for the band to perform.”

Both Karalekas and Wells had tried to get on the select board’s agenda this past Monday to change the start time back, but weren’t able to.

Town administrator James Hagerty told The Times that it is generally good order and governance to not rehear an issue two weeks in a row. He said that a reasonable compromise was reached, and everyone had the chance to speak.

Wells is an essential business owner, and the select board would be negligent if they didn’t consider his complaints, Hagerty said.

The band was also offered 6 to 8 pm on Sundays, but family obligations made Sunday difficult.

Karalekas said that he and Wells planned to just show up at this Monday’s select board meeting and see if the chair would let them speak, but the agenda finished earlier than anticipated, and they were not there before the meeting adjourned.

The band was forced to find a replacement for this Tuesday’s performance; the Cut and Dock Street Fight Club will play from 6 to 8 pm instead.

But the timing isn’t ideal for the younger band either. “Dock Dance is one of the only consistent activities open for people under 21, and moving it up makes it even more difficult to bring that crowd out,” Charlie Flanagan of Dock Street Fight Club said.

“As a band, we all try our hardest to make sure everyone is being respectful and safe and it has been a huge success so far,” Atlas Zack, lead singer for the younger band, said. “It would be unfortunate for the dock dance, which has been around far longer than we have, to lose its place on the Island.”

Karalekas continues to hope that they can get back to the 7 to 9 pm start time because otherwise, with only a few weeks left in the summer, Dock Dance remains at risk.