New And Old Traditions At Eastham's Windmill Weekend

Originally envisioned as a time for locals to reconnect after the tourist season, this year Eastham Windmill Weekend wraps up the summer for the 48th time with music, food, a parade and lots of candy.

What is Windmill Weekend?

After a long hectic summer season with an expanded population, many Cape Cod residents are longing to catch up with friends and family – enters Windmill Weekend. This annual tradition in Eastham aims to wrap up the summer with a celebration to all things local, and transition the community into the slower pace and quiet time fall brings to Cape Cod. At least this is the vision Joanna Stevens, President of Windmill Weekend Inc., has for the celebrations, which this year were held between 6 and 8 September, and she wishes to extend to others. She is standing on the Windmill Green, surrounded by local market stands, children playing and people reconnecting. “I feel like I have a permanent grin on my face cause I'm just watching how people are interacting and just enjoying themselves, whether it's people in the beer garden yapping it up or kids playing in the background running around.”

What is the Windmill in Eastham?

The center piece,  the Eastham Windmill, the oldest and last working gristmill on Cape Cod and listed in the National Register of Historical Places, is towering over the festivities. Having seen Eastham's ancestors and descendants for hundreds of years, this year marks the 48th Windmill Weekend celebrations, and time and a growing population has brought new challenges: Parking. To accommodate the complaints the committee is offering two shuttle buses from First Encounter Beach's parking. Stevens is hoping it will solve the issue and at the same time bring more people to the sand and art contest.

What is the parade in Eastham?

Old and new traditions meet with the ever increasingly popular road race on Sunday morning,  and the brand new line dancing activity. To end it all with a bang Route 6 is closed for all traffic to give way to the grand finale: the Sunday parade. "That's a pretty big deal," says Stevens and emphasizes that Route 6 is closed for a positive reason. The theme this year is "Going Back To The Farm" and saw goats parade, police dogs greet kids and Smokey Bear riding the fire truck. The only thing raining from the blue skies were showers of candy.

What is Windmill Weekend's Scholarships?

Back on the green, watched over by the Windmill, Stevens is getting ready to pass the torch to the next generation. She announces this is her last year as the Windmill Weekend President, and advertises for someone to pick up the baton and introduce new traditions to Windmill Weekend. Stevens is most proud of the collaboration with the Town of Eastham, which has chipped in with $10,000 this year – half the event's budget. Part of the proceeds from the weekend goes to three scholarships of $1,500 each which will be awarded three Eastham students at the Nauset Regional Highschool and Cape Cod Tech.