Hackensack|Local Event
Illumination 250: The Largest Interactive Public Arts Show in Bergen County
Illumination 250: A Free All-Day Arts & Community Celebration of America’s 250th Birthday in Downtown Hackensack, New Jersey.
Join your neighbors at an all-day community arts festival bringing together six unique experiences across Downtown Hackensack from 10AM through 9:30PM. Giant puppets. Live music. Cultural folk performances. Free food tastings. All ages welcome. A citywide audio adventure through Revolutionary War history. And a light installation that transforms one of New Jersey's oldest public squares into something you will never forget.
All metered parking fees will be suspended throughout the city on Saturday, October 3, 2026 including metered spots on streets and in all city-owned parking lots and garages.
Register for the experiences you plan to attend below. You can register for one, a few, or all of them.
The Full Day’s Agenda:
🎨 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM | Family Fun Festival + Fiber Art Immersive Experience | Anderson Street Park
🌍 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM | Folk Artists on Main St
🥢 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM | Sips & Samples | Main Street, Downtown Hackensack
🎭 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM | Giant Puppet Procession | Anderson Park → Main Street → Atlantic Street Park
🍺 1:00 PM – 8:00 PM | Hackensacktoberfest — 7th Annual | Atlantic Street Park
🎧 8:05 PM – 9:00 PM | MP3 Experiment: A Revolutionary Adventure | Atlantic Street Park → The Historic Green
✨ 9:00 PM – 9:30 PM | My Signature: My Declaration | The Historic Green, 42 Court Street
Illumination 250 is a collaborative project of the Hackensack Performing Arts Center, Northern New Jersey Community Foundation's ArtsBergen, Main Street Business Alliance (Downtown Hackensack), Greater Bergen Community Action, Inc. - GBCA, and the City of Hackensack, NJ supported by funding through the New Jersey Economic Development Authority's A.R.T.-Phase II Grant Program.
The Illumination 250's collaborators thank Dazzle Sponsor --Garden Communities, The Sylvan, and The Jefferson -- for their support and Columbia Bank for their Glow sponsorship of the Giant Puppet Workshop series.
Agenda for Hackensack River Songs, an Illumination 250 event, on Saturday, October 10:
Hackensack River Songs, Saturday, October 10, 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Hackensack River Songs is a site-specific musical performance for singers, dancers, instrumentalists, and electronic music happening on and around the Hackensack River at Foschini Park. Beginning at sunset, a community of performers, boaters and vehicles will converge to illuminate the urban waterfront with ritual and song celebrating and honoring the river. This program is made possible in part by a grant administered by the Bergen County Division of Cultural & Historic Affairs from funds granted by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and a grant awarded from Dimension Energy.
Partners: Hackensack Environmental Justice Alliance and Hackensack Riverkeeper
RSVP: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/hackensack-river-songs
For information, contact Danielle De Laurentis, Associate Director, Northern New Jersey Community Foundation at 201-568-5608, artsbergen@nnjcf.org