Pass the Salt – It's Margaritaville

Beach chairs and Caribbean-inspired shirts filled the South Main parking lot as the Ed Travers Band rocked out Sayville on Aug. 13 for its annual Margaritaville celebration. The area was filled with Parrotheads as the band played its Jimmy Buffett covers late into the night.

The event, sponsored by the Greater Sayville Chamber of Commerce, drew quite the crowd. John Stiastny of Smithtown is a big Jimmy Buffett fan and has been coming to the Margaritaville event for a few years. "When my daughter got married, Ed Travers played at her wedding," he said. "I just think this is a great event though, even for families. It's very organized, very clean and there are never any incidents. Everyone cleans up themselves when the concert is over and leaves in an orderly fashion."

Ed Travers Band is known on Long Island as one of the premiere Jimmy Buffett tribute bands. It consists of Ed, Dave March on bass guitar, Dave Ravers on drums, Irv Berner on lead guitar, Robbie DeLoney on percussion, Mike Speranza, filling in on bass guitar and helping out with sound, Dan Smith on steel drums and Keith Otis on trumpet.  

Awards were also given out for the best dressed Parrothead, Parrotkeet (children) and Parrot Vehicle. Julie Froehlich entered her vehicle in the contest. "I live in Sag Harbor now but I grew up in Sayville," she said. "I stumbled across this festival nine years ago and we just entered with whatever we had in the car. We flipped over our kayak, put on some decorations we had left over from my son's birthday party and made a shark out of silver duct tape. And we won, so we've been coming back ever since."

Concert-goers were also able to grab a drink during the show, as CU29 set up a special outside bar for patrons, complete with ready-made margaritas and different types of tequila.