DAY ONE: Friday night. Not too crowded. Orderly and well behaved. Faces in the crowd by Paul Goldfinger (one to six):
Bam one. Friday 6:30 p.m. Who wears short shorts?
Bam 2.
Bam 3. She seems to be a linguist. It looked like there were more girls than guys.
Bam 4. Chillin’ at the AP south end. People were lined up at the Carousel for tickets. Many buses rolling in.
Bam 5. Security was tight. This is near the entrance by Convention Hall
Bam 6. The girls were too pretty to be ignored. Oh….most of them wear short shorts. We have that song below.
The Royal Teens recorded this song in 1958, and it applies to the Bamboozle fashion of the day:
DAY TWO: Saturday morning
Bam 7. Early Saturday morning—bamboozled out. By Mary Walton, Blogfinger photographer
Saturday crowd at boardwalk entrance. There also was an entrance on Ocean Avenue. By Ted Aanensen, Blogfinger photographer
Saturday 7 pm: Fashions get more sophisticated. Big crowds begin to converge onto the boards. Photos by Paul Goldfinger
Free music by street musicians. Why do so many bands play without their shirts? Maybe the audience should take off their’s.
Future Foo Fighter fans, mesmerized by the boardwalk crowd.
28 items that are forbidden at Bamboozle. My favorite is “no water swurt guns” but also there are “no flags,” “no weapons”–darn!, and no “in and outs.”
Just returned from a buy one-get two free sale.
The scene at the Bamboozle boardwalk was noisy and busy. At first it seemed exciting and then it became exhausting. We didn’t attend the concert. Maybe we should have gone, but we wouldn’t have lasted. Coming across the bridge into Founder’s Park was a study in contrasts. OG was quiet as the sun was beginning to set. It seemed very comforting and relaxing. Time to pedal home for dinner. Leave Bamboozle to those kids who are having a great time. PG
DAY 3: Sunday morning. All quiet on the northern front. We could hear loud music and fireworks last night, but that all quieted down quickly. Spoke to a Neptune Police officer who was cruising around the Grove this morning. He said that they were pleased with how well things went. They could even hear the music at the police station. There were a few people who were taken to Jersey Shore UMC, but “that’s to be expected” with a crowd this large. The officer gave credit to the Live Nation folks whose efforts to promote mass transit really worked; there were no parking problems in the Grove or in Asbury Park. Right before he drove away he said, “Next weekend is Memorial Day…it never stops.”
We went to the official souvenir stand on the boardwalk. The Bamboozle T shirts were $25.00 each, and I was prepared to buy two of them, but they did not have working credit card machines due to “too many cell phones in the area.” I guess no credit card machines work in Manhattan. So they lost a sale—so much for their marketing brilliance. PG
“Food Fighters.” There were loads of places on and off the boardwalk to buy mostly fast food. You had to fight with yourself to pass by the fat/salt/carb. laden goodies that called out as you walked by. PG
How cool are we in Ocean Grove? We are now ahead of the curve: While I was on the boards last night in AP, some big loudspeakers were playing the latest top groups. The announcer pronounced this song as the next super rock hit, and Blogfinger has it: “SCREAM” by Usher from his soon-to- be released new album. He wasn’t at Bamboozle, but his music was. Warning: Ooh baby baby—this song is hot and X rated, so make the kids leave the room. The song does have some health benefits in that it encourages exercise and gets one’s mind off fattening food. PG
Usher: He’s a big hit. No wonder they’re screaming.
@Chuckie B: not surprisingly, that nurse is misinformed. Onsite EMS was operating a field hospital out of the Berkley & Carteret Ballroom. Any patient transported to a hospital had to go through there.
However, if the patient is a minor, and they could not have their parents come to the concert and pick them up, they were transported to JSUMC, Monmouth Medical, or Riverview. But every transport was triaged on site and spoke with a Emergency Physician on location
I wonder who actually is benefitting from Bamboozle’s location in our backyard. Does the town of AP benefit; and if so, how? Do the local merchants benefit? Where’s the money going? Is it really worthwhile to allow it here rather than back at the Meadowlands?
Asbury’s chief of police, Mark Kinnon, is being quoted as saying the weekend was relatively crime-free. “Just some minor scuffles here and there.” No “serious or significant incidents.”
Sorry to hear about the drunk kids.
The noise heard on the south end of town was the music, of course, and the seemingly endless drone of the advertising banner airplanes and helicopters. I can tune out the music, but the overhead noise really gets to me!
Today, I overheard someone talking about next year’s Bamboozle festival. Specifically, that Live Nation and Asbury Park leaders have started their discussion about next year’s event. . .bigger and better.
The ambulances (ambuli?) running drunk kids up to Jersey Shore was pretty constant all weekend long. Those of us in the lands between the gates and the hospital were pretty sick of the constant siren noise. (And yes, I talked to an ER nurse who lives in the neighborhood. Lots of drunk kids. They were sending them directly to the ER rather than doing any on-site triage.)
CB — did they take the guy who fell in the lake for hazmat decontamination. That water is nasty!
I commend you for removing your comment about “drunk kids passed out on the beach” from last week’s post about Bamboozle. The kids (according to both Asbury and Neptune police) were well behaved and out to do nothing more than have fun and listen to music.
I was able to sit at Founders Park with my Beagle last nite and listen to Bon Jovi…not that I’m a huge fan (would have much rather heard the Foos that loud and clear) but, was a cool experience to sit and listen. Oh, and I saw a guy who apparently drunkenly fell into Wesley Lake on the AP side, get pulled out by 3 grown men. That was interesting.
I was glad parking was not a BIG issue! Living 2 blocks from Asbury Park. But Mayor Bishop was correct with it being like a 4th of July holiday but I expected much worse. THANKS NEPTUNE POLICE for your being here in Ocean Grove!! It was great to see you on foot and cars:)
FOO FIGHTERS!!! (and short shorts!!)
Um. Less girls in shorts, more boys in bands please:)
Editor’s note: We’re hoping that somebody from OG will send us photos of the bands, because we didn’t get tickets. We are clueless regarding this music.
I met 2 young women and a young man today in the Grove. They looked to be about 25. I asked if they were going to Bamboozle, and they said no because they thought they were “too old” for that. OMG, shoot me now.
As for girls in shorts, they were the ones mugging for the camera. The guys weren’t very visually interesting, at least that was the appraisal of Charles and me, but we’ll keep our eyes open for guys in short shorts. Paul