It is time for one of the Shore’s favorite traditions: the annual New Jersey Seafood Festival.
The three-day fest, now in its 38th year, is happening Friday through Sunday at Belmar’s Ferruggiaro Park. The fun includes food and drinks from dozens of seafood restaurants, plus craft vendors and live music from nine bands including Shut Up Gus, Tommy B & the Deep Blue Sea, Little by Little and Pat Roddy Band.
The New Jersey Seafood Festival, previously called the Belmar Seafood Festival, is presented by the Belmar Tourism Commission.
Go: New Jersey Seafood Festival, 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Ferruggiaro Park at Silver Lake, 5th and Ocean avenues, Belmar, free admission, prices vary by vendor. For more information, call 732-681-3700 or visit belmar.com.
Here are more things to do this weekend, including a plant exchange, a Big Band concert and more.
Porch Fest in Freehold
Enjoy a day of music and community during Freehold’s annual Porch Fest on Sunday, May 17.
From noon to 5 p.m., there will be live music from local bands, vendors, artists and more, culminating in a band competition that will afford the winners the chance to perform in next year’s concert series.
Maps and schedules will be available at the DowntownFreehold.com tent located in Hall of Record Plaza. You can register your vote on the map and return it to the tent.
Go: Porch Fest, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 17, downtown Freehold. For more information, visit downtownfreehold.com.
Vegan Food Fest in Asbury Park
Vegan pizzas from Pasquale’s Pizza III in Middletown, which will be a vendor at this weekend’s Asbury Park Vegan Food Festival.
The Asbury Park Vegan Food Festival is back!
The two-day fest returns to Bradley Park on Saturday and Sunday. Nearly 100 vendors will attend, including Pasquale’s Pizza III in Middletown, the Sprout House food truck, Betty’s Icebox of Asbury Park, Vegan Treats of Pennsylvania and Freakin’ Vegan of Bergen County.
In addition to plant-based restaurants and food trucks, the event also will feature vegan lifestyle gear, cruelty-free fashion, live music and an outdoor bar.
“The location that we have is right off the Boardwalk and is across the street from Convention Hall and the Wonder Bar. So it’s right in the center of where everybody wants to be in Asbury Park,” said event founder Marisa Sweeney, who hosted the first festival 10 years ago in Morristown, in a news release. “And, Asbury Park already has such a great vegan scene, and we love the vegan businesses that have been there for a long time.”
The festival will take place rain or shine.
Go: Asbury Park Vegan Food Festival, noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Bradley Park, 101 5th Ave., Asbury Park, $24 to $36, free for children 13 and younger and attendees with birthday of May 16 and 17. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit njvegfest.com.
Native plant exchange in Middletown
Gardeners are invited to exchange seedlings Saturday at Deep Cut Gardens in Middletown.
Looking to expand your garden?
Visit Middletown’s Deep Cut Gardens on Saurday for Monmouth County Park System’s native plant workshop and exchange, preceeded by a lecture titled “An Enchanting Evening Garden for the Living World.”
Gardeners can drop off established, labeled plants in four-inch, one-quart, or 1 to 2-gallon containers between 8:30 and 10:15 a.m. The lecture takes place from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m., then attendees can take home the same size and number of plants that they brought to the exchange.
Only plants native to the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States will be permitted; a list of acceptable plants for exchange can be found at MonmouthCountyParks.com. House plants may also be exchanged; these do not need to be native.
Go: Native plant workshop and exchange, 8:30 to 10:15 a.m. Saturday, Deep Cut Gardens, 152 Red Hill Road, Middletown, free. For more information, call call 732-671-6050 or visit MonmouthCountyParks.com.
Brian De Palma horror films come to Asbury Park
It’s Brian De Pal-Month at The ShowRoom Cinema in Asbury Park, featuring a three-film retrospective celebrating the “stylish, suspense-driven work of visionary filmmaker Brian De Palma,” the venue says. Set throughout May, the series spotlights a trio of De Palma’s thrillers, “each showcasing the director’s mastery of voyeurism, psychological tension and bravura cinematic technique.”
Starting 8 p.m. Saturday, May 16, the retrospective begins with “Sisters,” a “twisted tale of murder, identity, and paranoia following a journalist (Jennifer Salt) who witnesses a brutal crime connected to a mysterious model (Margot Kidder), only to find the evidence mysteriously erased. Blending psychological horror with De Palma’s signature split-screen suspense, the film established many of the stylistic trademarks that would define his career,” The ShowRoom says.
Next up is “Dressed to Kill” at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 23, “a seductive and shockingly stylish neo-Hitchcockian thriller involving a bored housewife (Angie Dickinson), a high-end call girl (Nancy Allen), and a razor-wielding killer stalking the streets of New York.” The screening will be introduced by Ray Dademo, professor of Cinema Studies at Middlesex College.
The retrospective concludes at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 30 with “Blow Out,” “De Palma’s acclaimed conspiracy thriller starring movie sound technician Jack Terry (John Travolta), who accidentally records evidence of a political assassination and teams up with a young woman (Nancy Allen) caught in the deadly aftermath. Combining technical virtuosity with emotional tragedy, the film has become widely recognized as one of the defining American thrillers of the 1980s,” the ShowRoom says.
Go: Brian De Pal-Month; 8 p.m. May 16, 23, 30; The ShowRoom Cinema, 707 Cookman Ave., Asbury Park. For tickets, $17, and more information, visit showroomcinemas.com.
A musical ‘Journey’ in Toms River
Join the Sentimental Journey Big Band, a 17-piece Big Band that has been playing together since the mid ’80s, for an afternoon of music on Sunday.
Their show, “It Might As Well Be Swing,” will be performed at the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts in Toms River.
“What makes this year’s program unique is a vibrant celebration of the enduring dialogue between classical music and jazz,” according to the Grunin Center. “From Bizet to Verdi, and Paganini to Rimsky- Korsakov, composers have long inspired jazz artists with their timeless themes and harmonic structures. This performance explores how classical compositions are transformed through jazz arrangements, whether in the smooth sophistication of a big band, the daring freedom of improvisation, or the rhythmic vitality of swing.”
Go: “It Might As Well Be Swing” from Sentimental Journey Big Band, 3 p.m. Sunday, Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts, 1 College Drive, Toms River, $16 to $28. For more information, call 732-255-0500 or visit grunincenter.org.
‘The Power to Change’ at New Jersey’s capital
Step back in time and take in some New Jersey hisory at “The Power to Change: Revolutionary Stories from the New Jersey State Archives,” an exhibition at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton.
“The Power to Change: Revolutionary Stories from the New Jersey State Archives” is on exhibit through January 2027 at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton.
According to a news release from the museum, “visitors will explore how revolutionary ideals, fought for by our founders, influenced the newly established government and continue to allow for reinterpretation and adaptation today.”
The exhibition, organized by guest curator Claudia Ocello, will be on view through Jan. 10, 2027. Attendees will be able to view rarely seen objects including New Jersey’s 1664 “birth certificate,” the Duke of York’s Grant of New Jersey to John, Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret; New Jersey’s State Constitution from 1776; the Ratification of the U.S. Constitution; and the Bill of Rights.
“We are thrilled to share these foundational documents with the public and tell the stories of New Jersey’s evolution from royal colony to democratic state,” said Joseph R. Klett, executive director of the New Jersey State Archives, in the release.
Go: “The Power to Change: Revolutionary Stories from the New Jersey State Archives,” through January 2027, The New Jersey State Museum, 205 West State St., Trenton, free admission, donations accepted. For more information, call 609-292-6464 or visit nj.gov/state/museum.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Best things to do around the Jersey Shore (May 15-May 17)
