Our Huckleberry View in a nutshell:
Music 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵
Sound 🎵 🎵
Lighting 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵
Layout 🎵 🎵 🎵
Vibe 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵
Food 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵
Overall 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵
Well, getting to Asbury Park was an absolute drag. Had we left from Vermont, we probably could have gone around and had we had more time leaving from Rhode Island, we probably could have also found a better way around NYC. But we were in a bit of a time crunch to get Watson to Lori, the Rover who was to take care of him while we were at the festival. So…over the damn George Washington Bridge we went on a Friday afternoon. NEVER AGAIN. It’s been years since we have done it because we have always done ANYTHING to avoid it. Apparently, we needed a reminder. Ugh.
But we did get to Lori’s and she was so upbeat and excited to see Watson, that we swear, he just figured he knew her somehow and was happy to hang with her for a couple of days. Lori, thanks for being so terrific.
The hotel was just a couple of miles down the road, though a 20 minute Lyft to Asbury Park, but we were at the hotel with a ton of other festival goers, so we were in good company.
Day 1
First of all, props to the Ride Share drop-off/pick-up area. It was right outside the venue entrances for both General Admission and VIP. And the venue was, yes, on the beach and along the Asbury Park boardwalk. As soon as we walked in the VIP entrance, we came upon the Iron Whale and as we were hungry for lunch, we jumped right in. Bloody Marys, crab cakes and ahi tuna tacos. Now that’s a festival lunch! Like Ocean’s Calling, it’s great to have restaurant options for lunch and dinner. Then a quick stop at the Sea.Hear.Now merch store (it was a bit breezier than we anticipated) to grab ourselves some long sleeve shirts. We didn’t wear them long because it did warm up pretty quickly, but they came in handy and will again in the future. Too bad they didn’t have festival raincoats as there was definitely rain in the forecast for tomorrow. We would enjoy the weather today and worry about that later.
The VIP entrance was right next to the Transparent Clinch Gallery displaying art made by various musical artists, so that was cool. We learned later that the Gallery is named for Danny Clinch, a rock photographer who is one of the co-producers of the festival.
We noticed a crowd forming around a pop-up stage at the front of the gallery. So, we acted like sheep and found ourselves right in front of the stage. And in came Tom Odell to play piano and perform a couple of songs, including a Springsteen cover. We had to admit, we had the best seats in the house. What a surprise and what a joy! Soon after that, Tyson Ritter, the lead singer from the All American Rejects, walked in. We have seen the band play at a couple of festivals and they have always been fun and engaging. He was so nervous talking to everyone about his art which was included in the gallery showings. He was vulnerable but honest. He did apologize beforehand to the little kids sitting in front of us about the language he was going to use. And he did use it. We chatted with their mom afterwards, who had been bringing her kids to this festival since they were tiny (the festival started in 2018). Many people here were fairly local and come every year. Such a treasure to have this festival right in your backyard! A popular Sea.Hear.Now festival shirt we had been seeing was from 2024 when Noah Kahan and Bruce himself were the 2 headliners. Where were we??? It was such a treat to hear Tyson speak of his art. So, yea, we were off to a great start.
We wandered over to the main stage, the Surf Stage, to hear Men at Work. They were fun and folks were enjoying the nostalgia of their music. As we looked around, we couldn’t help but chuckle over some of Tyson’s last words at the Gallery “this is the richest old person festival I have ever been to.” Looking around, he did not get that wrong. So, our friends, if you are looking for a festival to get your feet wet at (literally) to start your festival journey, head here to Asbury Park. The VIP area at the main stage includes a very stable and level boardwalk, so you can completely avoid going on the beach if you don’t want to deal with the unevenness of trudging through sand. And there were enough old-timey bands here that there were TONS of folks our age in the audience. Like 85%. And everyone was so civilized! There was no pushing to get up front, at least not in the VIP area. Everyone gave each other space. There was also not a lot of dancing going on which was a little odd. Instead, there was lots of chit chatting. It was like just another beach day where Chaka Khan happened to be performing in the background.
Yes, Chaka Khan was here. She looked great. She had 3 fantastic back up singers that did a lot of lead singing as well. It was so fun to listen to all her oldies. The first 10 minutes of her performance was actually not a performance at all, but more like a testimonial to Chaka Khan herself. It was a film clip of past performances, words of praise from the likes of Oprah and Whitney, etc. Then she was introduced with much fanfare. Quite a show!
Before seeing Chaka Khan at the Surf Stage, we had headed over to the Park Stage, which was off the beach and on the other side of the Boardwalk, to see Fitz & the Tantrums. It’s hard to believe they were so early on the schedule. There was a small VIP area there to the side of the stage. Again, there was no pushing and no crowding. People here definitely respected each other’s space. We ourselves did not push our way up to get towards the front. We were happy to just hang back.
Everyone here had been easy to talk with. It really was a nice vibe.
The VIP lounge and viewing area at the Surf Stage was expansive. And we appreciated that the seating is not in a viewing area, so if you want to take a load off, you can do so while still hearing the music. But you would not hang here all day because you couldn’t see. This really is the way to go when it comes to VIP lounge seating. Keep it out of the viewing area so folks won’t park themselves there forever.
We strolled down the boardwalk at dinner time to see where we could jump into for a decent meal. We ended up following signs up some stairs to AP Rooftop. Great spot! The bar was full, so we went over to make a reservation. We lucked out and bar spots opened up immediately after that, so we grabbed a couple of seats at the bar and canceled the reservation. The line to the ladies room was long…folks opting not to use those port-a-potties in the GA section perhaps. Colette was encouraged to use the men’s room by, well, a man. Just saying…we have a son. She was not afraid.
We had a wonderful vodka-roni pizza that was just the right amount of spice. We finished up our Espresso martinis and headed back out to catch the last of Susanna Hoffs’ (remember the Bangles?) set at the Sand Stage. The joke was on us. Although she was supposed to play until 7:00, we got there just as she was walking off at 6:45. Bogus. We had really wanted to see her. We could hear the All American Rejects still going on at the Park Stage…they kept to their proper time slot!
What was the best act of the night in our opinion? The Offspring on the Surf Stage. They sounded great and everyone loved listening to them. They were a huge crowd pleaser. We have no pics or videos of them which can only mean we were enjoying them too much!!
We decided to stick around the VIP area of the Surf Stage to make sure we had a decent spot to see Mumford & Sons. We have never seen them and they are certainly a fave of ours. We took a quick journey to the VIP bar to grab the drink of the day for us – the Paloma Spritz – quite refreshing and tasty. Tequila, grapefruit, and salt. In a fancy cup. And we grabbed a can of Open Water. Canned water is free for VIPers ($6 for the GA folks) so we took advantage of that perk since we forgot our water bottles. Not very eco-conscious of us. Tomorrow….
If we were diehards, we would not have even grabbed a drink because when we returned to the VIP viewing area, of course we were stuck behind some tall people and we had to bob around to get a view of Marcus on stage. The band was of course terrific and we can finally say we have seen them in concert. Joy.
We did duck out a little early to beat the crowds (darn…we missed the fireworks) and we grabbed a Lyft back. Again, the RideShare area is so convenient. It wasn’t long before we were in a car and being safely driven back to our hotel. We went up the elevator with some younger folk who told us that All American Rejects (of course) and Offspring were their favorite acts of the night. Young and old alike…we can agree on music 🙂
Day 2
Another day of meals on the Boardwalk. Before entering the festival, we took a little stroll up the boardwalk and grabbed lunch at the Palmetto. The service was excellent and it was a great start to the day.
Immediately upon entering the festival, we went right into the Transparent Clinch Gallery because we knew there’d be something happening. And there was. A VERY popular local band, Status Green, performed 3 songs (plus an encore…shhh…don’t tell) and they were perfect. Most folks in the audience knew the words to their songs and joined right in (kinda like being at a Noah Kahan set). Asbury Park is a special place. So much great music and so many performance venues are here (we could see the Stone Pony right from our seats at the Palmetto). So many people at this festival were local. And soooo spoiled LOL.
We caught a little bit of Makua on the Sand Stage as we walked down the Boardwalk to get to the Surf Stage to watch some Ben Howard. It was easy to walk from the Sand Stage to the Surf Stage right down the boardwalk or on the beach if you want to feel the sand between your toes. But as 4 p.m. approached we were high tailing it back to the Gallery because we knew the Goo Goo Dolls were slated to be up. And in comes John Rzeznik, lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls, to give us an intimate performance. Just him on the acoustic guitar playing for us. And Danny Clinch joined in on the harmonica for a song. Spectacular! The only thing that could have been better if the dude in front of Colette did not film on his phone The. Entire. Performance. People…sure, take a pic or two and get yourself a great video clip, but understand your arm is in the middle of other folks’ sight line. This is a live performance. Be in the moment. And let’s try to think a bit outside of our own box.
We were able to hear a little of Flipturn at the Park Stage, which is not too far from the Gallery, but quite a jaunt from the Sand Stage. So, we couldn’t stay until the end because we were determined to see Fontaines D.C.’s complete set. Which leads us to mention that today’s crowd was definitely younger. Where yesterday’s audience was 85% over 45, today’s crowd was 65% under 35. And we loved that energy, so watching Fontaines D.C. was tons of fun with an energetic audience. The dancing had returned!
A little digression here. We didn’t really grab any swag. There was a long line for Josh sunglasses, but we did get some great sunglasses elsewhere – we daresay the best sunglasses we have received to date. But other than that, we didn’t run into a lot of handouts. But that may be due to the layout as it was so easy to get around on the boardwalk and most of the vendor stands were pretty spread out and on the grass. Our Gallery visits took up the time that we would have usually been wandering around the grounds to check out the vendor booths, so there might have been more swag to grab, but we just didn’t run into any of it.
There were some restaurants and shops on a covered portion of the boardwalk within the festival grounds. There were definitely lines to the restaurants there, in particular, the coffee shop. That line was longer than any line I have seen at a Starbucks at the airport. People are definitely desperate for coffee. Holy Moly!
The General Admission area was very large, encompassing most of the beach, so it was easy to get around. There were a ton of people but it never felt packed. The lines to the port-a-potties were pretty huge, particularly in between performances. We were happy to have VIP for this reason alone. There were definitely a lot of food options in the GA area (not a lot in VIP…but we had the restaurants, so that was great for us personally) and the food to bar ratio was very good. It was easy to find the food and the drinks in the GA area and you could always hear the music from the food and drink stand area.
But the sound itself was a little sketchy at times, particularly at the start of sets. It seemed to have taken a while for the sound to work itself out. They need to work on that.
We talked with so many people at this festival. Folks were so happy to be at the beach listening to great music and loved talking about it. Even at the restaurants…people were all kind and friendly.
We opted to grab some dinner back at the Iron Whale for some more yummy food so missed out on Ziggy Marley on the Park Stage. We saw him at Ocean’s Calling last year on the beach…had he been performing on the Sand Stage, we may have just had to starve. We are happy we got to see him with the waves as his backdrop last year.
We made sure to get back in time to see the Goo Goo Dolls big stage set. And of course they didn’t disappoint. Danny Clinch again joined in on the harmonica for “Broadway.” Because we stayed for their entire set, we were only able to catch the last part of Moby’s performance on the Park Stage (it’s a trek). That was super fun.
We wandered back towards the Surf Stage and had some fun watching the Strokes from the beach. We had lots of room to dance around. Because close to the Surf Stage itself was packed. It was clear most people that came to the festival wanted to see the Strokes. So EVERYONE was at the Surf Stage. We imagined that to get out of the venue at the end of the night was going to be crazy, so we grabbed a friendly Lyft to the hotel and put our feet up. We did a lot of walking over the last couple of days.
We would highly recommend Sea.Hear.Now to anyone that follows A Huckleberry View. Everyone is friendly, you will be among comrades, and it’s great to see that the Jersey folk are still rocking. Bruce would be happy.