The 8th edition of Asbury Underground returns to the streets of downtown Asbury Park on the weekend of Oct.15 and 16, featuring approximately 100 musicians, 50 visual artists, as well as a three-hour spoken work venue “Underground Poets,” plus food provided from 12 of the area’s local restaurants at various venues on the tour called “Asbury Bites,” all for free.
Asbury Park is already known as “the city where music lives”, and is quickly becoming New Jersey’s number one destination for the fine arts, and fine dining as well, with its’ many galleries and restaurants.
“This will be our 8th Underground.” Says local artist Patrick Schiavino, founder of Asbury Underground, and owner of art629 Gallery on Cookman Avenue. Each one has been bigger than the previous. The last one which took place last October brought an estimated 6,000 people to the downtown. It was a phenomenal success; we were all very pleased. The stores and restaurants did amazingly well.”
The festivities will take place Saturday afternoon, Oct. 15, between the hours of noon and 8 p.m., where a well-orchestrated “crawl” will wind patrons through no less than 22 venues downtown, predominantly art galleries, or alternative spaces which show and sell original art, to witness performances by local musicians.
The Asbury Underground will kick off with The Lakehouse Music Academy Pros at the Lakehouse Music Academy located at 619 Lake Avenue at noon. The Lakehouse Music Academy Pros, are three full-fledged rock bands, comprised of dedicated students, ages 9 to 16, who are committed to excellence in music performance and representing what the Lakehouse has to offer.
In addition, there will be an after-party beginning at 9 p.m. at newly opened Asbury Hotel, Asbury’s hottest attraction this year., located at 210 5th Ave. The Asbury Hotel will be offering discount rooms to Underground “crawlers” by visiting the Asbury Underground Web site and using the password “Underground”.
The Asbury Underground is not a “guided tour”. This no-frills event allows attendees to explore the downtown with maps of participating venues, plus “crawlers” can now download the new Asbury Underground APP for free from the Apple App Store and Google Play, where you can follow the map, schedule, and get up-to-the-minute updates of various specials being offered not only the day of the event, but all year around. There will also be several “by invitation only” events being offered that day only available to Asbury Underground APP users including an invitation to the Asbury Underground After-party.
Confirmed performers for Saturday are American Casino, Arlan Feiles, Billy Hector, Blisstique, Cat London, Chris Brown, Emily Grove, Dan Matlack, Doug Zambon, Frank Lombardi, Gods, Haze Brown, Jennifer Lampert, Joshua Mark, Julian Fulton, Karen Mansfield, Matt Wade, Pete Scherer, Quincey Mumford, Renee Maskin, Ron Santee, Spoondrift, Stringbean, Sunday Blues, The Morgan Freemasons, and Val Emmich.
Along with the music being performed in the various indoor venues during the afternoon, there will also be music and art displayed outside all day on a vacant lot next to Parlor Gallery on Cookman Avenue. “The gARTen at 715 Cookman” is the brainchild of local musician, author and artist, Joe Harvard. Joe has taken a vacant lot and has created a sculpture “gARTen” where viewers can follow a path of sculptures made almost entirely of repurposed plastic containers and debris painted brightly with glow paint. At night one can walk the “gARTen” path with a hand-held black light, and be immersed and amused in the spectacle of being surrounded by glowing objects, creating a very surreal experience.
The lineup for the gARTen is as follows Keith Monacchio, Geena, Douglass Berry, One Banned Man, ADDJ, Mike Noordzy, Daughter Vision, Couch Sound, Nick Paolise, and Doctor Danger.
Also added this year are “The Underground Poets”. The Underground Poets take over Toast Café, 516 Cookman Avenue from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday. Chelsea Palermo, founder of the Ministry of Artistic Intent, has gathered an eclectic crew of poets to represent the varied voices emerging from Asbury Park, and surrounding communities, including NYC and Philadelphia. The collection of 16 poets ranges from former Asbury Park Poet Laureate, Dogmatic (Josh Matson), to Laura McCullough, who was featured in this year’s Best of American Poetry, and teaches at both Brookdale Community College and Sierra Nevada’s MFA in Poetry Program, to student poets from Monmouth University, including Griffin Arnott, and editor of the Monmouth Review, Kevin Holton. Also featured are Drew MFA in Poetry Alumni Jesse Burns, and Tamara Zbrizher. For the full schedule of poets go to www.MAIntent.org.
Once again this year, Asbury Underground will welcome the collaboration of the Asbury Park Downtown Merchants Guild which will be presenting “Asbury Bites”. Asbury Bites will be serving delicious food samples from many of Asbury Park’s smaller eateries, which will be hosted by a number of stores and galleries on the tour. “Crawlers” will be able to sample free food offerings all afternoon prepared by various local restaurants.
Participating retailers on the Asbury Bites tour are Backward Glances, Etc…, Hot Sand, Salt Design Co., KUR, Nita Ideas, Shelter Home, The Showroom Cinema, Uncorked, Words, Coil & Co., and Old Glory Tattoo.
“Bites” will be offered from Confections of a Rock Star, Pepe Events Catering, Pasta Volo, Food Lube, Vintage Subs, Dino’s, The Chat & Nibble, Medusa, Purple Glaze, Juice Beach, Lentil Tree and At The Table.
Then there is Sunday. Asbury Underground has partnered with Asbury Fresh to bring yet another dimension to Asbury Underground. Billed as “Harvest Fest”, Asbury Fresh will feature over 40 local vendors and artisans selling local produce and handmade goods. Asbury Underground will provide the music for the day, featuring 5 bands playing on stage with full production.
Featured bands will be, Matt O’ree with Erin Shewell, Gina and Dragster, Shady Street Show Band, Dentist, and GayGuy/StraightGuy. The market will open at noon, and the bands will begin at 1p.m. and play till 6 p.m. Cross and Orange Restaurant will be providing an outdoor café’ serving food and drinks all day during the festival.
“Asbury Fresh was born in the spring of 2012 from the simple desire to bring fresh, local produce and handmade goods to downtown Asbury Park. From a few small tents in the park that first season, Asbury Fresh has since become one of NJ’s fastest growing markets with over 60 vendors convening in Kennedy Park each week all summer long. The team at Asbury Fresh has been excited to help the overwhelming talent of local artisans and farmers find a home in our beautiful city by the sea. Recently voted the “Best of Monmouth County” Farmers Market by Monmouth Health and Life Magazine, Asbury Fresh hopes to continue to build a strong community of vendors and farms year-round through events like the annual Harvest Fest, which will feature over 40 vendors and organic farms, and also our Winter Markets, held each year on Saturdays between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We are very excited to have Asbury Underground join us on Sunday the 16th. It should be an amazing day for all of us.” Asbury Fresh.
Then on Sunday night, all the festivities move over to Asbury Festahalle and Biergarten, where the Sunday after-party will begin at 6 p.m. Featured performer at the prestigious Biergarten roof-deck will be Gedeon Luke and the People. The party will go till 9 p.m.
“Asbury Park has a long tradition as being the premier destination for original music, but what most people are unaware of, is that it is quickly becoming one of the most concentrated areas for the fine arts as well, and we now have about 30 restaurants downtown alone. That is pretty phenomenal growth in a very short time. The whole idea from the inception of Asbury Underground was to bring a broader awareness of just how fertile in all of the arts our City truly is. Art, music, food… it’s our culture,” Schiavino said.
For participating artists and the full event schedule updates visit www.facebook.com/asburyunderground or www.asburyunderground.com.