9/19/21. Most of the huge Sea.Hear.Now Festival crowd was on the beach, but some came to Cookman Ave. Most of the 40,000 in attendance were young people. There parking spilled over to Ocean Grove leaving us with our cars parked all weekend. Paul Goldfinger photo.
Paul Goldfinger photo, Monday. Because I complain, they call me “the morning after pill.” On Monday there will be a huge caravan of trucks with portable toilets on board–about one hundred.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor, Blogfinger.net, Ocean Grove, NJ, USA. This is a re-post 2021.
In 2024: Sea.Hear.Now Festival returned to A. Park with Bruce Springsteen as the headliner, so the crowds will be massive. And the many other acts are impressive.
Woe is us in the Grove.
2021: This is from a prior piece on Blogfinger about the “Sea.Hear.Now” music festival which appears for an entire September weekend, Saturday and Sunday, on the beach of Asbury Park once each year.
It’s bad enough that we suffer parking indignities due to Asburian crowds during all the summer weekends, but now we get smothered again, but this time in September when we thought we would have OG weekends to ourselves–for residents, renters and visitors.
It’s interesting that this private extravaganza will shut down a large swath of north A. Park to the public. I was down there late Friday, and the security and restrictions are reminiscent of a third world country.
Why should this event close down large portions of the Asbury beach, boardwalk and parks to the public unless admission tickets (wrist bands) are purchased? Where is the precedent for this at the Jersey Shore, and right in Ocean Grove’s backyard.
What happened to the civil liberties of all who don’t attend but who live in AP and OG? You can be sure that there will be gridlock parking in OG.
When they have huge events in Central Park, such as Shakespeare in the Park, it is usually free except for rare charity benefits. And most people can take a train.
Anyone can photograph in Central Park, but at this Asbury festival they will not allow Blogfinger to photograph despite our NJ press credentials. As of Friday, all press credentials were being denied. Freedom of the press on public property? They do not want any professional photographers at the events.
Most of the people attending will be from out of town. There will be congestion in small areas. Many hotels in the region extending to Staten Island and Brooklyn are already sold out.
This event has tied up the entire area, and to what end? Who benefits? Who gets the huge amount of money to be generated? Will some drop into the coffers of the City of Asbury park to benefit the citizens, the tax payers, the poor, the homeless, social programs and municipal projects?
And what about the impact on the environment including the Atlantic Ocean and Wesley Lake?
I bet Bradley the founder of AP would not approve. And Stokes would jump out of his chair. And the event will go on into the night.
Why is AP allowing and encouraging this? What is really the point of it in a public space? In 2012 they allowed Bamboozle, and that was a messy failure.
But Grovers, you might just want to go. It does look like fun, and some of you did go last year. But the fact that it is a success here doesn’t mean that it should happen every year.
Why not move this thing to California or Woodstock–they have lots of space there? Why not have it at some fairgrounds around here or some Jersey Woodstock style property?
It’s because they want to make money by exploiting the public’s beaches, quaint towns, and ocean at the Jersey Shore. And OG offers the most historic Victorian houses in the US.
Somebody tell them the way to San Jose.
DIONNE WARWICK:
