Point Plesant Beach Point Pleasant Beach is a shore town that prides itself on being about more than its expansive beachfront. In fact, the borough, known as Point Beach in Shore parlance, boasts numerous special events that draw people into town. The Festival of the Sea, the Point Pleasant Beach Jazz and Blues Fest and the summer series of classic car shows are some of these events.
Carol Vaccaro, executive director of the Point Pleasant Beach Chamber of Commerce, said the Festival of the Sea is the borough’s biggest event.
“The seafood fest has evolved into what it is today,” she said. “It is over 200 crafters, over 25 restaurants; it’s just a showcase of everything we have here.”
Vaccaro said that the annual September festival, now in its 34th year, has grown to about 50,000 to 60,000 people. She attributed some of the growth to the addition of the wine and beer garden two years ago .“It just keeps getting bigger and bigger each year,” she said. “We saw the need to expand the seafood fest by bringing in the wineries.”
Another event that has been popular for the shore town is the Jazz and Blues Fest, which is set to take place for the third year on May 21 and 22.
The festival includes performances by local jazz musicians plus local vendors and restaurants, as well as the wine garden, which features only New Jersey wineries.
Another event that the chamber sponsors is the Classic Car Cruise, which will be held on the first Tuesday during each summer month and the first Sunday in May and first Sunday in October.
The car cruises are held on Arnold Avenue, with the road closed to traffic.
Vaccaro said that the car cruise is another chance to showcase some of the borough’s downtown businesses.
Jenks Boardwalk “People enjoy walking in the street,” she said. “You get the couples walking around looking at the cars, and the next thing you know the wife is coming back because she saw something in a store.”
Other events that take place throughout the year include sidewalk sales and the Christmas Tree Lighting.
Vaccaro said the chamber is in the process of planning some new events, which may include a run.
She said the goal of the special events is to attract tourists to come back to the town and visit some of the local shops and eateries. “We want them to come to our events and doing so they walk around and see what else we have to offer in town,” she said. “You’d be surprised how many people come back and say I saw your store when I was here for the seafood fest.”
The borough is a summer town with a year-round population of 5,600 people that swells to over 1.5 million in the summer.
Jenkinson’s Aquarium The town’s biggest summer draw is Jenkinson’s Boardwalk, which includes the beach, an amusement park, games, eateries, boardwalk shops, arcades, miniature golf and a series of special events of its own.
Vaccaro said the chamber tries to steer people to the downtown area after they enjoy a day at the beach and boardwalk.
“They are a draw and we concentrate on, once they are here, to get [visitors] to shop instead of just going to the beach,” she said. “We have a little of everything, we really do.”
Restaurants in town include Jack Baker’s Wharfside and Patio Bar, Red’s Lobster Pot and Farrell’s Steak House as well as other landmarks like Hoffman’s Ice Cream.
Visitors seeking lodging have a choice of more than 20 hotels and motels.
Pavillion Other attractions that draw people, Vaccaro said, include the borough’s cluster of antique shops located on Arnold, Atlantic and Bay avenues, and an eclectic assortment of boutiques and home-interior shops.
Since the borough is a shore town that borders both the Atlantic Ocean and the Manasquan inlet, another attraction is the borough’s fish markets and commercial fishing boats.
The Point Pleasant Beach train station on NJ Transit’s North Jersey Coast Line provides easy access to this quintessential shore town, and Vaccaro said the visitor population coming from the train has grown in recent years.
“With gas prices [rising] the number of people who utilize the train is growing every year, and we want to get them right off that train,” she said. “If they are going left [toward the beach], enjoy your day; when you’re done, come enjoy a restaurant.”
While the chamber holds special events and promotions throughout the year, the town’s biggest tourist draw remains the boardwalk.
Marilou Halvorsen, Jenkinson’s marketing director, said there is a special event basically every day during the summer at the boardwalk.
“We have weekly events that happen every single week like our movies on the beach on Friday nights, Radio Disney events on Wednesday, fireworks on Thursdays, and Kiddie Beach shows on Mondays,” she said. “All of our events are free.”
Halvorsen said that the movies are always rated G or PG and that all of the events are designed to attract families to the boardwalk.
There is also the annual Easter Egg Hunt, which features 15,000 plastic eggs filled with ride tickets and toys buried in the sand.
For more information on the Point Pleasant Beach Chamber of Commerce, visit the website at http://www.pointchamber.com/default.asp.