‘Battle of the Bands’ caps Mitchell Park dance season

Greenport’s Mitchell Park was transformed into a sonic battleground on Labor Day for the village’s first “Battle of the Bands,” the final show of a summer full of Monday night “Dances in the Park” concerts.

The high-energy musical showdown pitted an eclectic group of four bands who faced off against each other, including the roots, rock and Americana group Nina Et Cetera; psychedelic funk band Chow Funk; rock, country and blues artists Sweet Ride; and the all-girl funk band GUNK.

The four bands played on Monday evening from 6 to 9 p.m., with brief intermissions in between. To keep the energy buzzing, comedian Mike Keegan emceed the event — and kept the crowd engaged between sets. The winning band gets to play one of next summer’s nine ‘Dances in the Park’ concerts in Mitchell Park.

Greenport’s American Legion Hall served as a green room for the bands.

“It was fabulous — a great night and a huge success,” said “Dances in the Park” committee volunteer Mary Vines, who came up with the idea. “The bands were all amazing, and the people gave them such a great reception. Different people in the audience had different favorites, but GUNK won, and they were so excited.”

She said the event attracted lot of out-of-towners. “People really got their Greenport on, which is always fun” for the committee members, she added.

“Everyone felt like the big winner was the audience,” Ms. Vines said. “Because it was such a great show, and the enthusiasm was fantastic … the only problem was that everyone wanted more music in a limited amount of time.

“We’re so excited that GUNK will join the 2025 ‘Dances in the Park’ lineup, but any one of those bands could play a Monday night dance, any of them. Whoever won, Greenport was going to win because they were all fantastic.”

She said the vibes at all of this summer’s dances have been fantastic.

“For the bands — just having all those people dancing and that energy is really incredible. I think Monday night dances are just such a treasure,” Ms. Vines said. “It’s an amazing community event. I always describe it as ‘the best wedding you’ve ever been to,’ because absolutely everybody dances, and nobody is self-conscious or worrying, ‘Am I a good dancer?’ Everyone just lets loose, and there’s all this joy.”

She said Monday night’s event gave the committee “loads of ideas” about how to improve next summer’s band showdown.

To begin with, she said, “We may not have a song limit. We may just have a time limit for each band.”