BITS & PIECES FOR JUNE

We are coming up again on the outdoor festival season. The weather pattern should hold for the outdoors giving people and opportunity to get out of the house and enjoy them. The one that has already passed us the week before Memorial Day was Cruzin' with the Oldies car show held in Marine Park. This event has been going on for 14 years now and has changed at least for those looking for a food and music events.

Like many of the popular festivals in our area it has grown tired either by the repetition of the event or by the needs and wants of the people coming to it. The music was as good as ever if you are a fan of the “oldies” of the 50’s and 60’s. The cars on Broad Street were as beautiful as ever and the organization was well run however the crowds eating at the event were way down.

As the price for the food space has increased over the years and the numbers of “area” restaurants have stopped participating, the number of people coming to the event to eat as well as listen to the music has dropped dramatically. The average vender at this last event grossed 25% of what use they use to.

Riverfest was the “big brother” of all the festivals in the state for over 20 years but has changed dramatically in the past three years as it was turned over to the Jazz and Blues group. Originally started as a food festival it touted up to 27 great restaurants that merged with the Jazz and Blues group and was rated as one of the top 100 events in the US. When the Jazz and Blues group took over the event three years ago their focus was naturally music which they do very well. However, without the focus being shared equally on it being a food festival as well the average restaurant grossed only 50% of what they did before. That along with raised prices for the space most of our area restaurants dropped out.

For this weekend there will be less then 15 food venders at the event, most are the type you find at state fairs and the like. The only area restaurant left is the East Side Café doing a Greek venue. The music will be great and if Jazz and Blues is your thing then you will find a wealth of talent on hand for the three days. Tons of promos have been put forth for the music.

One week later on June 13 the 14 I suggest you move down to the Belmar Seafood Festival. Here the accent is on eating seafood. And eat they do...located on the Ocean in Belmar on Ocean Ave over 30 restaurants serve tons of lobster, shrimp, sole, salmon and crab cakes a dozen different ways. It starts at 11 AM on Saturday and goes until Sunday night at 6 PM. There is music by live bands and a huge wine tent serving New Jersey wines. Rain or shine thousands of people show up and spend the day eating the freshest seafood from some of the best restaurants on the shore.

The Belmar Food Festival is run by the same people year after year. Mike Damato has kept the same great food venders coming back year after year. She has held down the price for space in the festival allowing the venders to charge a fair price to the thousands of people coming back year after year to eat at their favorite places. It has evolved each year with better and better foods and thousands of people coming back over and over again. We serve more food in two eight hour days then we had been doing at the other 3 day events that lasted up to 24 hours.

The bottom line is that we have lost something as these fairs and festivals slowly fade from our lives. They were institutions that we returned to year after year. They played a part of our growing up, a place to take our children and see friends we had not seen since the year before. Some will eventually change and grow stronger others will eventually fade out completely. Hopefully it will not be all of them and from what I have seen over 24 years the Belmar Seafood Festival is going to be here for a long time to come.