The West Tisbury select board this week signed off on plans for the Jewish Cultural Festival to return to town in 2025, assuaging past concerns about the number of attendees.
The board voted 2-1 at its meeting Wednesday to approve Chabad on the Vineyard’s permit to hold the August festival, but not before putting restrictions on the crowd size. The event, held in a field along Edgartown-West Tisbury Road, will be allowed to have 800 guests overall, but no more than 300 attendees and 100 staff members at any one time.
Select board members Cynthia Mithcell and Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter voted in favor of the permit. Board chair Jessica Miller was the lone dissenter.
Ms. Mitchell voiced support for the festival, despite the town not having permitted an event of that scale recently. According to town administrator Jennifer Rand, the largest event permitted last year on a similar property was 400 people.
“The upside of last year is they proved that they can handle 800 people,” Ms. Mitchell said. “I am convinced that just because we haven’t done it doesn’t mean that it can’t be done.”
The festival began in 2023 as a way to celebrate Judaism through food, music and art, according to the organizers. Last year, the event drew artist Matisyahu, but also exceeded the town’s capacity limits of 350 guests.
Chabad on the Vineyard previously came to the board in the fall to talk about the infraction. At Wednesday’s meeting, Rabbi Tzvi Alperowitz apologized for exceeding the permit in 2024 and vowed to not do so this year.
“The attendance permit we asked for this year is the amount of people that attended last year, a maximum of 800 people, including guests and staff,” he said. “While this was more than our permit allowed for last year, we unequivocally proved that we can host this number in a professional, seamless and safe manner.”
The event, according to the application, is scheduled for either August 4 or 5, and is to be held at a private property on a residential stretch of Edgartown-West Tisbury Road.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Ms. Miller said she wasn’t comfortable with approving an event on this large of a scale.
“I appreciate the forthright application of the 800 people, I have to say, from my perspective, that is too large for a residentially-zoned piece of property,” Ms. Miller said. “[I also have] a concern about setting a precedent that could then become problematic for future applications.”
The board and Chabad on the Vineyard went back and forth to reach the compromise. Originally, the Chabad on the Vineyard’s permit only specified 800 ticket sales total, but that plan failed by a 2-1 vote.
Mr. Manter suggested the new capacity limits, which then passed.
Support flooded in from attendees during the meeting, as well as through numerous letters submitted to the board.
“To the idea of precedent, there’s a difference between a wedding that somebody might ask to have 800 people and an inclusive community event, the intent of which is to build community,” attendee Amy Macy said at the meeting. “So to me, I do think there is perhaps an opportunity to consider each applicant and the type of event.”
The select board put the responsibility of keeping track of the number of attendees on Chabad on the Vineyard.
“It’s essentially an honor system, and we’ve already been told that it more or less happened last year, so we know that they can do it,” Ms. Mitchell said.
