LONG BRANCH — Fans of the oldies may have more competition next summer as city officials are revisiting special events and mulling introducing other musical styles to the lineup of the summer concert series.
Mayor Adam Schneider said during the Oct. 27 City Council workshop meeting that he’d like the city to revisit all of the summer concert events — including eliminating some, moving others to September and adding a more diverse set of live music in an effort to attract diverse audiences to the city
“One of the things we started looking at is what every single event costs to put on and how productive it is with benefits to the city,” he said. “No decisions have been made, nothing has been written on paper, let alone stone.
“I’m not looking for dramatic changes, I’m looking to tweak it. A couple new bands, a couple new events and shows, and we’ll see how we do.”
Schneider suggested the city look at adding more events in September, including moving the annual Jazz and Blues Festival from the end of August to September.
“Would it be a better event, even though there would be slightly fewer people in September where we don’t have crowds and our staff will be able to handle it a little bit more,” he said. “One of the things that worked well was the ‘Funk Fest’ two weeks after Labor Day.
“I talked to some of the merchants, and they had a great night and it didn’t cost us much. I would like to do more events in September in West End.”
Schneider said he has had preliminary discussions with festival organizers about moving the event and they expressed some concerns, particularly regarding vendors who are used to the long-standing schedule of the Saturday before Labor Day for the Jazz and Blues Festival.
Councilwoman Joy Bastelli said she’d like to keep the Jazz and Blues Festival as scheduled, particularly because of the charitable component attached to the event, which includes scholarships for local students.
According to Schneider, one impetus for moving events to September is that the city beaches already attract crowds in the summer months and holding more events in September would extend the season further.
“[In] Summer we have the beach, any event in the summer has to justify its inconvenience,” he said. “If an event is going to take place in the summer, it has to add to what we already have.
“The more expensive events we want to look at and say are we getting the most out of this as possible.”
The annual Father’s Day car show could be one of the events that may not return.
“The Father’s Day car show is not overwhelmingly popular with our employees because they want Father’s Day as a holiday,” Schneider said. “That is frankly on the chopping block, although no decisions have been made.”
However, other events including the Tuesday Night concerts at the bandshell behind the Brookdale University Learning Annex, may be expanded.
“The Tuesday night shows have been a little bit erratic and not well attended and maybe we should do them every Tuesday night regardless of a council meeting,” Schneider said.
Schneider said he’d also like to book a more diverse set of bands and music styles for the summer concert series.
“We are trying to stimulate the businesses, we want our local residents to have fun,” he said. “A Thursday night in Pier Village is a good time, and if we had a slightly wider range of music with a slightly more diverse audience, then we could do better.
Schneider said one of the aims for next summer is to have a concert featuring a younger set of bands to draw a younger crowd to the events.
“There are a lot of bands with relatively young kids,” he said. “We are known for having a lot of live music, and I am looking to expand on that.”