VIDEO: Hundreds Enjoy Lighthouse Music Fest

Be it for a good cause or just a good time, the Huntington Lighthouse Music Fest gets bigger and better every year.

The only concert in the world staged on top of a working lighthouse in the middle of the water, bands of all musical genres performed live to a hundreds of spectators enjoying the show from a sea full of boats moored in the harbor Saturday.

Canoes, kayaks, rafts, boats and ships anchored down again in 2011 for the all day concert from a long list of bands including King Wellington, La Fuerza Positiva, Henry Haid, The Fuzz, The New York Exceptions, Running Loose, Black Light, Playback and the Pamela Petty Band.

Now in its fifth year, the open air concert has become a popular annual fundraising event for supporters and residents. The the turn-out has doubled this year, according to event organizers.

Lighthouse Preservation Society President Pam Setchell said the event helps with fundraising and has helped get the lighthouse "on the map." She said next year's event — to be held during the 100-year anniversary of the lighthouse — will be special. 

“It’s gonna be rockin,’" she said.

Fundraisers including the Lighthouse Music Festival, wreath hangings, cabaret concerts, tours, engraved brick selling and raffles are some some of the ways money is raised to preserve what the locals call their “Castle on the Bay,” built in 1912.

Also helping out at the event, Teens on the Water, a volunteer group founded by M.J. Maione encourages young adults to get involved in the preservation of the Huntington Lighthouse. Teenagers earn community service credits for school or college by helping move and load equipment to and from the venue before and after the Music Fest. 

Festival volunteers, Bob and Dorothy Brochon from Huntington Station said this year's event was the best one ever "to help protect and preserve this beautiful icon of Huntington."

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