Old Greeny Fringe Fest is a week-long, fringe festival in celebration of the weird, wacky, and whimsical, rooted in the legend of Old Greeny—the cryptid of Cayuga Lake. The festival activates traditional and non-traditional venues along the waterfront trail through performances, installations, community activities, and storytelling, with a strong commitment to sustainability, accessibility, and local culture.
What is a Fringe Festival
The “fringe” concept first developed in 1948 in Edinburgh, Scotland, when groups of local actors, performers, and musicians—in reaction to the more conventional lineup of the Edinburgh Theatre Festival—launched an alternative program to run concurrent to the main event. Now almost 73 years later, the term ‘fringe’ widely refers to work that resides on the edges of the mainstream—and fringe festivals have served as a critical launch pad for independent artists to self-produce, showcase original work, engage new audiences, and network with fellow indie artists and producers inside of a vibrant festival environment.
There are now 100s of fringe festivals in North America and across the world… and each has its own structure and personality.
Old Greeny Fringe Fest is a proud member of the US Association of Fringe Festivals (USAFF).
The Legend of Old Greeny
A Cayuga Lake Folk Tale
Long before the trail traced the edge of the water, before docks and boathouses and engines humming at dusk, the lake was already watching.
Cayuga Lake is deep—deeper than it looks. The old folks say it doesn’t give up everything it holds. Some things rise only when the water is calm and the light is low, when the wind stops and the lake decides to speak.
That’s when people say Old Greeny appears.
The earliest stories go back to the late 1800s. A couple walking near Little Point once swore they saw a great serpent curled around a rock at the water’s edge—brown, spotted, longer than any snake had a right to be. One of them ran for a gun. When they came back, the creature was gone, leaving only the quiet lap of water against stone. Others claimed they saw its head rise from the lake, broad and square, like a cigar box breaking the surface.
Children said it basked on the shore in the sun.
Fishermen saw it differently.
They tell stories of something following their boats at night, a long neck cutting through the dark water, moving faster than it should. In the 1950s, a group trolling near Poplar Beach swore a creature struck their boat, dragging the stern low, tossing men into the lake before sinking back beneath the surface as suddenly as it came. They searched the shore the next day. Nothing. Just water. Just silence.
That’s how it always goes.
No one ever brings back proof. No body. No bones. Only stories that line up a little too well for comfort. A head here. A tail there. A ripple that shouldn’t be moving upstream. A shadow that disappears when you look straight at it.
Some say Old Greeny is a sea serpent. Others say it’s something older—something that belongs to the lake itself. A guardian. A warning. A reminder that the water is alive, and that we are only visitors along its edge.
Old Greeny doesn’t stay long. It never does. It shows itself just enough to be remembered, then slips back into the deep where belief has to do the rest of the work.
People still argue about whether it’s real.
But if you’ve ever stood by the water at dusk, when the lake goes still and the air feels thick with waiting…
you might understand why the stories never stopped.
You don’t have to believe.
But it helps.
Have you seen Old Greeny?
Call and tell us your Old Greeny Story! It may just make it into our Old Greeny audio tour and Youtube channel!
(607) 319-2719
