Being quite allergic to big crowds (especially at the beach) for my first visit to Fire Island I chose one gorgeous week day of early September 2019 to wake up early, drive one hour from Brooklyn to Sayville, take the ferry with a little bunch of gay early birds and enjoying a beautiful day at the Pines. Breakfast at Canteen, little walk through the village and then a few hours at the beautiful, almost empty beach. I repeated it another couple of times during the following weeks and then last year (I skipped 2020 and 2021..), and I plan to do the same this year. Very very enjoyable.
I am definitely too old for parties and loud music.