This weekend showed once again just how easy it would be to have
music play a vital role in Asbury Park's economy. Over 170 bands and
artists played throughout the town in around 18 different venues.
Cookman Avenue was one of the biggest winners with places like
Twisted Tree Cafe, America's Cup and Jake & Lucy's having good to
great crowds nearly the entire time. Last year the goal was simply
to have the festival take place, this year I think people began
embracing the festival from the very beginning. There was a great
vibe throughout town. Even with the construction and lack of parking
spots in some areas, people came. Even with hours of rain on
Saturday, people came and hopped from venue to venue. And even with
the lack of hotel rooms available, people came and found places to stay.
It's a shame that there are still many people who don't want Asbury
to capitalize on its musical heritage. Events like the Wave
Gathering Festival prove that Asbury's music scene is still as
vibrant as it ever was and can bring people to town. Imagine if
everyone who came for the three days spent like $20 per day... It
may not seem like much, but it would start adding up and this was
only the 2nd year of the festival. Could this kind of festival ever
be as big as a South by Southwest? Probably not because we're not
located in a pure city with the amount of hotel rooms and venues to
match that; however, it could become something bigger and bigger that
is marketed to the roughly 25 million people within a 3 hour drive of
Asbury Park. Tie in the hotels in Tinton Falls and surrounding areas
with shuttles to Asbury and all of a sudden you do have something
that brings in very significant revenue numbers.
This festival was done (as with nearly everything in Asbury) on a
rather limited marketing budget and yet the people came. Imagine
what could be done with the town with a serious music tourism plan.
Great things could be done.
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