Port Washington Fish Day

The most famous of fish fry fests was bigger and more impressive than anticipated. Port Washington Fish Day is billed as the World's Largest One-Day Fish Fry. The fest offered 9 different food and beer stands, all serving fish and chips, shrimp and chips, and, you guessed it, Miller products. We thought that different stands would offer different types of fish or a culinary spin on the classic, however, each of the 9 stands served with fast food type consistency.

The event spans the lower and upper lake park in downtown Port Washington. Parking downtown was not fun, although we scored a delightful spot in a 15-minute loading zone in front of the local post office. Our comrades in festing this weekend, Callie and Cathy, used the free park and ride remote lot with shuttles to the fest and actually got in faster than us.

We arrived in the early evening, just in time to witness the drunkest of the daytime participants being scraped off the ground and performing interpretive dance routines around the side stages. In defense of our favorite clown, it was very hot, and taking a nap under the shade of a beer sign did look inviting.

The weather was the star of the show. When we arrived it was around 90 degrees, and not cooler by the lake because of the westerly breeze. However, as the clock struck 7pm, the wind changed direction and a wonderful wind off the lake dropped the temperature 10 degrees in a matter of seconds. The entire crowd stopped in their tracks, faced the breeze, then applauded.


We opted to not pay the $3 for PWFD buttons to gain admittance into the main stage area. The group was split on the virtues of seeing The Spin Doctors play "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong", "Two Princes" and other various tracks. We decided instead to set up camp at the Classic Rock stage to watch the band, 1969. Here's when the magic of Fish Day hit us. While setting up the stage, the band shell lost power and the band could not take the stage. Undeterred, the 6 members of 1969 grabbed their acoustic guitars and tambourines and began wandering through the crowd jamming out unplugged. Incredibly, they sang and played off the cuff for 2 hours! Finally, the power was restored and they were able to hit their regular set.

Ratings:

Entertainment is a Paul. It would have been pretty plain Jane without the very impressive improv effort of 1969. My hat is off to them. No one would have been the wiser if they would have sat around and waited, instead of working their butts off to entertain the crowd. Fireworks were excellent as well.
Drink is Miller Lite. 10 ounce Miller products were $4
Food is Bologna on White. Fish and Chips were $4.50, Shrimp and Chips were $5.50. The food was good, just boring.
Cost is free! Fish Day buttons, which get you into the main stage are $3.
Bathrooms are a Trinity.
Adult vs. Family Fun spectrum is Disney.