Chestertown Tea Party Festival
In May 1774, five months after the British closing the port of Boston after the Boston Tea Party, the citizens of Chestertown wrote a set of resolves that prohibited the buying, selling, or drinking of tea. Based on these resolves, a popular legend has it that the citizens held their own "tea party" on the Chester River, in an act of colonial defiance.
The Chestertown Tea Party Festival celebrates Chestertown's colonial heritage with a weekend of events including a re-enactment of the legendary "tea party." A parade begins the festival, marching down High Street to the Chester River, and then follows with colonial music and dance, fife and drum performances, puppet shows, colonial crafts demonstrations and sales, military drills, and a walking tour of the historic district. In the afternoon, re-enactors, playing the part of angry citizens and Continental Soldiers, march to the docks where redcoats (played by members of the Maryland Loyalist Battalion) defend the ship for a short skirmish, then retire. The ship, the schooner Sultana, is then boarded by the angry citizens, and the tea is thrown into the sea. It is the town's biggest weekend of the year, as tourists fill the streets, strolling among booths filled with crafts, activities, and food.
It is always held on Memorial Day weekend.
Schooner Sultana
In 1997, John Swain came up with blueprints for a reproduction of the American-built yacht, later Royal Navy schooner HMS Sultana, planning the construction and home of the ship to be centered in Chestertown. In the same year the non-profit group Sultana Projects, Inc. was formed by Swain and supporters to fund construction of the ship. A shipyard was constructed and the keel for the Sultana was laid in October 1998. Over 3,000 students participated in the community and educationally led effort, with a core group of
