Alive on 25 after dark: block party Reflextions
The 2025 Alive on 25 block party in downtown Riverhead wrapped up Friday night, Aug. 1. The cooler weather suited the evening well, with many dancing in the street, chowing down on the good eats, checking out the many Riverhead Raceway vehicles on display, cheering on the wrestling in Town Square — including Supervisor Tim Hubbard — and cruising through Reflextions, the art and light installation in Milton L. Burns Park on Peconic Avenue.
Photos by Daniel Franc
The highly anticipated Alive on 25 summer festival in Riverhead’s downtown underwent a transformation with its new organizer, Main Street Agency, and brought the focus back on Riverhead.
Diane Tucci, Riverhead Town Board coordinator and founder of the consulting group Main Street Agency, said she curated craft vendors, musical acts, food and drink offerings and other street festival essentials in an effort to create a reimagined summer block party and downtown crawl — where the fun went “beyond the street closure.”
Part of that change was moving the fireworks, which were set off during the July installment of Alive on 25, over the Peconic, leaving space and time for the art in the park, Reflexions art and light installation to be open during the block party.
This year, Reflexions included even more art to interact with including lit butterfly wings to pose for photos in front of, a metal shipping container with a mural painted with florescent paint lit with black lights and sea-saws all lit up for adults to tap into their inner children.
Ms. Tucci also brought more than a dozen bands to play spaced out along downtown, so that as attendees walked the street, they were hit with good smells from the food vendors and diverse music all along E. Main Street.
