Starfish Junction owner: Neighbors have ‘nothing to worry about’ – cider festival will not be held at Baiting Hollow site

Andy Calimano, owner of the events and promotions company partnering with John King in the Riverhead Ciderhouse project at Grapes and Greens in Baiting Hollow says the 2015 Pore the Core hard cider festival will not be held at the Sound Avenue site.

“It’s too small. There’s not enough space. We bring in 50 to 60 different ciders from around the world,” Calimano said in an interview Sunday at the North Fork Horseradish Festival presented by his company, Starfish Junction Productions. “And there’s not enough parking.”

Residents in the surrounding area have expressed fears that Starfish Junction will begin using the site for its popular hard cider festival and possibly other events. They note that the Pore the Core website does not disclose a location for this year’s festival and worry it will be staged at the proposed Ciderhouse.

“Those people have nothing to worry about,” Calimano said. “That site is too small for the festivals I do.”

Calimano said he was able to produce this year’s horseradish festival on a small site — the Long Ireland Beer Co. — only because there is plenty of street parking in the area. That’s not true of the Grapes and Greens Sound Avenue location, he said. Calimano said he moved the horseradish festival from Hallockville on Sound Avenue, where it debuted last year, because there was not enough onsite parking there and festival traffic backed up Sound Avenue.

Pour the Core was held at Peconic Bay Winery in Cutchogue the past couple of years, but Starfish Junction has to find a new location this year, the company owner said. Peconic Bay is no longer an active winery, so Southold Town says it’s no longer eligible to host festivals, Calimano said.

“We have another place in mind, but I can’t release the location yet because a contract hasn’t been signed yet,” Calimano said Sunday. “We’re still negotiating.”

The Fourth Annual Pore the Core- Long Island is set for Oct. 3.

Riverhead Ciderhouse has a site plan application pending before the Riverhead Planning Board and an application for benefits pending before the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency. Residents and civic groups raised objections to the site plan application at two planning board meetings.