Area bands play downtown ahead of Sea Hear Now
Where’s the best place to pre-game the big Sea Hear Now festival this weekend in Asbury Park?
In the words of Petula Clark, go downtown.
Businesses in the downtown in section of Asbury Park are hosting bands, artists, sales and more on Friday to welcome the more than 35,000 Sea Hear Now fans who are coming to the area. Sea How Now features the Foo Fighters, the Killers, Weezer, the Beach Boys and more, plus artwork and pro surfers, on Saturday and Sunday on the North Beach and Bradley Park.
“Apparently a lot of people come in through Friday, Saturday and Sunday because the Airbnbs and hotels will only take three-night stays so people are coming in and they’re looking for something to do on that Friday,” said Pat Schiavino, a city artist, owner of Art 629 on Cookman Avenue. “We have about 12 or 14 different stores who will be having music or tie-ins with sales on Friday night. It’s going to be a mini crawl.”
Schiavino previously produced the Asbury Underground art and music crawls that packed storefronts downtown in conjunction with the Parkinson’s fighting Light of Day Winterfests.
“(Sea Hear Now) draws (tens of thousands) a day, so it brings a lot of eyeballs to Asbury Park. But conversely it kind of hurts the downtown businesses because the perception is ‘Don’t go to Asbury on that weekend because you’ll never going to find parking because it’s going to be a zoo,’ ” Schiavino said. “So it really hurts our businesses on Saturday and Sunday.”
Attendees of Sea Hear Now can exit the festival grounds on the oceanfront and return to the fest. The downtown Asbury Park event is not affiliated with Sea Hear Now.
“We have the train so people can access us from other parts of the state and New York,” Schiavino said. “The city has been working on a parking deck plan for a number of years now, and we keep urging them forward — so hopefully that will be become a reality soon.
“... We have to keep growing,” he added. “... One of the biggest issues that we have downtown is the lack of parking and that has to happen or we’ll be stuck where we are.”
Highlights of Friday’s events include the Foes of Fern at Severed Wing & Blackbird Presents; Teenage Bottlerocket at the House of Independents; Jarod Clemons at Asbury Park Distilling Co.; and the City by the Sea show at Art 629, featuring 15 multidisciplinary area artists. There’s also a Mike Noordzy’s Sleaze Greaze musical performance at 8 p.m. at the Art 629 gallery.
“The works are about Asbury,” Schiavino said. “So whether it’s paintings of the Casino, photos of Bruce ... some of the iconic buildings here, we try to do our best to have an eclectic wide-range portrayal of people’s vision for the city.”
Go: Pre-Sea Hear Now event, downtown Asbury Park, starts at 6 p.m., Friday; asburyundergroundevents@ gmail.com.
Sear Hear Now club shows
Who’s playing this year’s Sea Hear Now nightclub shows? Check them out below:
h Stone Pony: Oteil and Friends, 7:30 p.m. Friday, $110 resale as of press time. The Ocean Avenue Stomp featuring the Tangiers Blues Band and guests, 10;30 p.m. Saturday, $150 resale.
h Wonder Bar: “There Goes the Neighborhood” featuring Sunshine Spaz, Tide Bends and Baquenne, 7:30 p.m. Friday, $17. Babe Rainbow, 10:30 p.m. Saturday, $30.50.
h Asbury Lanes: Judo Chop, Surfing for Daisy and the Lucky Strike All-Star Jam, hosted by Rachel Ana Dobken, 9:30 p.m. Sunday, free.
Visit seahearnowfestival.com for more information.
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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com