Athens’ waterfront park is the site of summertime concerts and other village festivities.
Conflict between long-time residents and more recent transplants from the city is a common theme in quaint Hudson Valley cities and villages, and is also the theme of the 2015 horror/thriller Behind the Mirror. (The film is also about psychedelic drugs.) Made by a largely Cypriot crew, Athens is visible throughout the film, including in an iconic Fourth of July party shot in the waterfront park in which you stand. You will see the stage used for concerts.
While you’re here on the water, take a look at the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse, which was built in 1874 and still serves to help traffic navigate the Hudson River. The lighthouse is open for tours on certain weekends.
Check out this view of the Athens waterfront from the Hudson side, featuring both Middle Ground Flats (in a former, smaller incarnation with a cut through the middle) and the lighthouse, from a 1959 classic, Odds Against Tomorrow, a crime thriller starring Harry Belafonte directed by Robert Wise.
(This is not a Hudson tour, but there is very nice footage of then-Hudson at this point of the film.)