Southold plans to launch its first winter festival to help local businesses and attract tourism

Southold officials are planning to launch its first winter festival in February to help local businesses, and attract tourism in the North Fork community during the months when business is typically slow.

The town’s Economic Development Committee revived the idea for a winter festival to the Southold Town Board at its Aug. 24 work session at Town Hall.

"Many of our wineries and businesses are open all year, so the main goal of this thing is to help these folks," said John E. Malley, the committee’s chairperson.

Jen Del Vaglio, a committee member and its former chair, said the committee hopes the festival can draw more people to Southold during a time when the area is quieter compared with the busier summer season.

"We really advocate for the town to be prosperous even in the down season, and it gets really super quiet around here in the winter months," Del Vaglio said. "So as a committee we were thinking of ways we would help generate activity for some of the local merchants, restaurants, boutiques and vendors that try to stay open out here year-round."

The festival was originally discussed in 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced officials to postpone plans for launching it due to public safety concerns.

Malley says that with vaccines, social distancing and masks more readily available, it felt like a good time to revisit the festival.

"We had thought about visiting three places in town, but my thought was maybe visit Southold first and cut our teeth on it, see how this works, how many people participate in it and go from there," Malley said.

The committee has discussed featuring music, snow sculptures, hot chocolate stations and other family activities and entertainment at the festival, while looking to partner with local groups for help in holding such events, Del Vaglio said. The committee is looking to somewhat model the pilot festival after Mattituck’s famous Strawberry Festival.

The committee also will reach out to Southold’s police chief on safety protocols, while working on parking space and seeking feedback from merchants.

Committee members say they’re considering holding the festival on a Saturday in February, and will likely announce more plans around late November.