Save Fish Day

Fish Day is more than a festival and fundraiser. It is a Port Washington institution woven into the community’s history and culture. It cannot be allowed to wither and possibly die because the organization that controls it has decided to cancel this summer’s Fish Day in the face of shortfalls in volunteer support and funding.

The event is so important to Port Washington that Mayor Ted Neitzke, reacting with alarm to the cancellation news, pledged the city’s support to keep Fish Day alive. “I feel it’s our responsibility because it’s such a part of our identity,” he said.

The mayor has called on community organizations to join him in an effort to save the event. Their goal, despite the challenges of putting it together in the few months remaining before summer, should be to ensure there will be a 2023 Fish Day.

It is important that Port Fish Day, Inc., the corporation that was formed to manage the event and has achieved a stellar record of success year after year, supports the rescue effort by sharing its contacts and resources and relinquishing any rights it may have to the use of the event’s name.

The announcement by the Fish Day corporation came as a shock because there had been no communication with the city. Had discussions been held with city officials and leaders of participating organizations, they might have led to a better way forward than throwing in the towel.

However, no one should underestimate the daunting situation the Fish Day organization faced. With a complex myriad of moving parts involving fish stands, parade units, vendors, entertainment, security and more, the event requires a sizable corps of dedicated volunteers. It’s demanding work, burnout is understandable and organizers had reason to fear there would not be enough volunteers this year.

Also lagging was the commercial sponsorship the event had come to depend on to support a budget that, according to Fish Day president Mary Monday, would be close to half a million dollars in 2023.

These issues point to the fact that Fish Day has outgrown its founding reason for existence, which was to be a community celebration honoring Port Washington’s fishing heritage.

The first Fish Day in 1965 was exactly that, and it was a such a success that it took on the character of a holiday special to Port Washington, marked by parties and family reunions.

It brought visitors too, tens of thousands at some Fish Days, and attracting those crowds became its overriding objective. Crowds were so massive that the business district was essentially shut down and the lakefront and marina were fenced in as a rock music venue for once-famous bands. The city’s picturesque maritime district, the inspiration for the creation of Fish Day, was buried under a mass of humanity.

The pandemic, in an ironic positive effect, provided a glimpse of what a reimagined Fish Day could be. After the Fish Day committee canceled the 2019 and 2020 events—correct decisions at a time when the event’s crowds would be the perfect environment for spreading Covid-19—volunteers from the Port Lions Club and other service clubs put on a small scale, unofficial version of Fish Day they called Fish-tival.

Several hundred people attended the event in Veterans Park on the lakeshore and loved it, and so did the volunteers. Fish-tival became a model for a modified Fish Day in 2022. Spread over two days, it was still a major undertaking, but compact enough to be held in Veterans and Upper Lake parks, with some attractions and outside vendors eliminated and the parade shortened.

Future Fish Days should continue the trend to smaller celebrations. Smaller means less pressure to find sponsorship and attract an army of volunteers. Service clubs can remain the heart of the event with their stands selling fish and chips and beverages and they will still raise substantial funds for their worthy causes, especially with lower assessments for police and public works services due to the reduced attendance.

It is fitting that the city has a role in this reinvention, for its elected officials were instrumental in the success of the first Fish Day.

When Ozaukee Press publisher Bill Schanen Jr., who conceived the idea of Fish Day and served as its first chairman, went to a Common Council meeting one Tuesday night in 1965 and asked for financial support for an event that was still in the formative stages, the council responded with a remarkably generous grant. The city was all in then, and 59 years later it is again.

Neitzke promised that the city “will do everything we can to support a tradition that brings everyone home.”

May that tradition enliven the summer of 2023 and those that follow.