Enjoy a Drink with Friends Before 'The Storm' at Sag Whaling Museum

“The calm before the storm” might be an idiom too freely tossed around these days, but it’s quite applicable to these last, semi-peaceful days of June in Sag Harbor before the crowds boil over on Main Street, the traffic jams up, and the race to find a parking spot gets a bit, well, competitive. 

The braintrust at the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum – which from its location on upper Main Street has a perfect view of the building summer traffic heading downtown – wants you to savor this moment of relative tranquility by attending their “Calm Before the Storm” cocktail party and fundraiser this Saturday, June 24 from 5-7 p.m. to benefit the museum before the clock strikes July. 

When the Whaling Museum board was considering a date for the event, a member mentioned June 24. “Someone else said, ‘Great, there will still be parking.’ It all stemmed from that, just the idea of getting something in before the madness begins,” said museum director Richard Doctorow. “We took that and ran with it.”

“Every year we say it can’t get crazier, and every year it gets a little crazier,” said Doctorow. “It’s all part of the fun.” 

The pre-storm party will include drinks, hors d’oeuvre, and a live jazz band, plus the chance to bid on Hamptons-style experiences that include a private chef for the day, a yacht cruise, and a personalized interior design consultation. 

The Whaling Museum’s summer 2023 exhibit is Lights, Camera, Whaling, an exploration of the great (and not so great) Hollywood movies that brought whaling action and adventure to the big screen. The exhibit will have on display original movie posters, press photos, lobby cards, and props – along with lots of Hollywood behind-the-scenes info and gossip. Clips from the movies will be shown, too. 

Doctorow said that while the museum took its lumps during COVID, visitorship is back to booming and this summer promises to be bigger and busier than ever as the museum chronicles Sag Harbor’s fascinating past. “Our numbers were down but they’ve sprung back up [post-pandemic],” said Doctorow.

“It is really an absolutely fantastic history,” said Doctorow. “You can almost tell the story of America through the history of Sag Harbor. It’s a pretty spectacular place.”

Tickets for “Calm Before the Storm” are still available and will be available for purchase at the door. 

The Sag Harbor Whaling Museum is located at 200 Main Street in Sag Harbor. Visit sagharborwhalingmuseum.org for more info.