Music Festival Set To Jam Seaside Heights This Weekend

In case you haven’t heard, Seaside Heights is going to be rocking this weekend.

The Gentlemen of the Road Stopover Festival is Friday and Saturday on the boardwalk and beach in Seaside Heights, and according to reports, more than 30,000 tickets have been sold.

The borough has been preparing for the event for months, planning for parking, traffic and just the sheer volume of visitors, some of whom are camping on the beach as part of the event. Some of those preparations went into effect Monday, with the closure of Ocean Terrace to motor vehicle traffic.

Today, however, is when local residents will begin to see an impact, as visitors begin to stream in for the event, headlined by the group Mumford and Sons.

For starters, there’s a pre-festival event set to begin at 5 p.m. Thursday at the festival’s downtown stage, welcoming festivalgoers who have purchased camping tickets and others. The downtown stage is in the parking lot on Ocean Terrace between Franklin and Hamilton avenues, according to information posted on the borough’s website.

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Camping on the beach -- which costs $20 in addition to the $179 two-day ticket -- opened for setup at noon today. There are two sites: Between Hiering and Sherman avenues to the north of the main stage area and between Hamilton and Dupont avenues to the south.

The heaviest impact will be Friday, when the main portion of the festival begins. Gates open at 4:30 p.m. to the main stage area, and you must have a wristband to access both the boardwalk and the beach in that area.

The downtown stage will feature local bands Friday and Saturday and will remain free for the public to access.

There are free shuttles for festivalgoers from Toms River Intermediate School North, and Ralph Stocco, spokesman for the Toms River Police Department, said parking additionally is being provided at High School North and High School East.

“Additionally, parking is being provided at Ocean County College and the Ocean County parking garage if needed,” he said.

Traffic delays are expected on Route 37 and Route 35 as festivalgoers begin to make their way in, and traffic throughout Seaside Heights is expected to be extremely heavy all weekend.

While the northern end of the boardwalk from Hiering Avenue to Casino Pier and Casino Pier itself will be open to the public throughout the weekend, Seaside Heights officials are urging people to visit nearby beaches and towns this weekend instead.

The boardwalk will be closed to the public from Grant Avenue to Porter Avenue until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights, then open from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. those nights, officials said.

To that end, Seaside Park will be honoring beach badges from Seaside Heights all weekend. Residents of Ortley Beach have been told they will need beach badges this weekend because they will be checked -- something that hasn’t always occurred this early in the season in the past, township officials said at a council meeting in April.

(Photo of the boardwalk area set up for the festival; screenshot of camera view from EarthCam.com)