# Avalon’s Arts & Seafood Festival Brings One More Big Day to the Beach 2026-10-07 · Surfside Park · Avalon, New Jersey · Event Fresh seafood, nearly 40 artisan vendors, live music, beach hayrides, children’s activities and an all-day football lounge fill Surfside Park on Oct. 10. Fresh seafood, nearly 40 artisan vendors, live music, beach hayrides, children’s activities and an all-day football lounge fill Surfside Park on Oct. 10. --- Summer may be over, but Avalon is not quite ready to hand the beach over to winter. The borough’s Arts & Seafood Festival returns Saturday, Oct. 10, turning Surfside Park into a full-day mix of Shore food, live music, handmade art, family activities and one of the more appropriately Avalon fall attractions imaginable: hayrides on the beach. The free festival runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Surfside Park, 30th Street and the beach, with food and craft vendors operating throughout the day. The setting matters here. Rather than moving autumn indoors, Avalon leans into the fact that October can still be one of the best times to be near the ocean, cooler, less crowded and still very much the Shore. That gives the event the feel of a last big outdoor gathering before the calendar turns toward the holidays. Visitors can eat local seafood, browse rows of artists and makers, let the kids work through activities sponsored by the Avalon Free Public Library, catch three different live music blocks and, if abandoning football for a festival is asking too much, settle into the Sound Advice Lounge and keep an eye on the games. Seafood Is the Headliner, but the Menu Goes Beyond It The festival name makes the food priority clear, and the 2026 vendor lineup gives seafood plenty of room. Capt’n Chucky’s Avalon, PJ Buckets Seafood, Son of a Sailor Seafood, Southern State Oyster and Bayside Under Tow are among the scheduled food vendors, creating a lineup that ranges from shellfish and seafood specialties to casual festival fare. Avalon Golf Club/CCT, Matty G Dogz, NautiGirl Food Truck and Ribeyes Steaks round out the current food list, so visitors who are not looking for an all-seafood lunch still have options. As with most outdoor food festivals, the practical strategy may be to arrive hungry and share: the event is spread across seven hours, which leaves time for more than one pass through the food area. The Arts Side Is Nearly as Big as the Food Side This is not a seafood festival with a few craft tables tucked around the edges. Avalon’s current 2026 list includes close to 40 arts, craft and specialty vendors, with a mix of fine art, jewelry, ceramics, woodwork, photography, clothing, candles, flowers, coastal décor and locally themed goods. The names alone suggest the range: Elizabeth Sabine Fine Art, Wetlands Wildlife Photography, Joko Ceramics, Nicole Hammer Art, Sealife Wood Sculptures, Bob’s Wood Works, Avalonia Jewelry, Flynn Jewelry, Spadaflora Flowers and Wickit Good Candles are all on the roster. Avalon Maps and Beachcomber Art keep the coastal setting close at hand, while vendors such as Hank Sauce, Monster Joe’s Sauces, Cannoli Cartel and High Dune Baking Company blur the line between shopping and snacking. Other scheduled makers include Adori Designs, Atrevida Jewelry & Giftware, Black Sheep Dog Treats, Coastal Creations by Patty, Indigo Sun Prints, Kolby Crochets, Louella, Rusty Anchor Trading, Serendipity Clothing Co., Step by Stepping Stones and more. In other words, someone who arrives primarily for lunch can easily spend the afternoon shopping. Music Runs From Kids’ Songs to Country-Rock The stage schedule changes character as the day moves along. Music with Lolly opens from 10 to 11 a.m. with a children’s performance, giving families an easy first stop as the festival gets underway. Sean Loosh takes over from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., followed by Hickstown Road from 2 to 4:30 p.m. The staggered schedule means there is live entertainment through most of the festival without requiring visitors to plan around a single headline set. The music works more like a soundtrack to the day: eat, shop, wander back toward the stage, then keep moving. Yes, There Are Hayrides on the Beach The day’s most distinctly Avalon activity begins one block away from Surfside Park. Beach hayrides run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., loading from the 29th Street parking lot. A hayride is a familiar fall-festival staple; putting it on the sand with the Atlantic nearby makes this one considerably harder to confuse with anybody else’s October festival. The family area runs throughout the day with games, crafts and children’s activities sponsored by the Avalon Free Public Library. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the schedule adds face painting, balloon art and fairy hair tinsel. The organizer even advertises fairy tinsel for people and puppies, which tells you something about how seriously Avalon takes the idea that the family dog is part of the Shore weekend. Football Fans Get Their Own Festival Headquarters For anyone staring at the calendar and realizing Oct. 10 is also a football Saturday, Avalon has planned around the conflict rather than pretending it does not exist. The Sound Advice Lounge will livestream college and NFL football throughout the day and serve beverages, giving visitors a place to sit down, catch a game and rejoin the festival afterward. A beer and wine cart is also part of the all-day festival setup. It is a small programming choice that makes the event work for mixed groups: one person can browse art, another can chase children toward the crafts, another can order oysters, and somebody else can keep track of the score. Nobody necessarily has to win the argument about what to do that Saturday. A Fall Festival That Still Feels Like the Shore The smartest part of Avalon’s Arts & Seafood Festival is that it does not try to disguise itself as a generic harvest fair. There are no cornfields at Surfside Park and no reason to pretend otherwise. The festival uses what Avalon actually has: seafood, the beach, local businesses, artists, coastal scenery and the slower rhythm of a Shore town after peak summer. The hayrides happen on sand instead of through a pumpkin field. The artisan list is full of coastal makers. The lunch options lean heavily toward seafood. Even the football lounge feels right for an October beach weekend, when the water may be too cold for most people but nobody is quite ready to stop spending Saturdays outside. That makes Oct. 10 less of a farewell to summer than a reminder that the Shore has another season after it. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Avalon is putting most of it in one park. PLAN YOUR VISIT WhatAvalon Arts & Seafood FestivalWhenSaturday, Oct. 10, 2026, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.WhereSurfside Park, 30th Street and the beach, Avalon, NJAdmissionFree to attend; food, beverages and merchandise are purchased separately.Beach Hayrides10 a.m.-3 p.m.; load at the 29th Street parking lot.Kids ActivitiesGames and crafts all day; face painting, balloon art and fairy hair tinsel from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.MusicMusic with Lolly, 10-11 a.m.; Sean Loosh, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.; Hickstown Road, 2-4:30 p.m.FootballCollege and NFL games streamed throughout the day in the Sound Advice Lounge.Official informationVisit Avalon - Arts & Seafood Festival Reporting sources: Visit Avalon / Avalon Chamber of Commerce & 7 Mile Business Community Association; Cape May County Chamber of Commerce. Event information checked Oct. 5, 2026. --- ProbleMattic is written and maintained by Matthew Kulcsar, a software engineer, project manager, technologist, platform builder, emergency-services-trained helper, grandfather, and lifelong collector of broken systems, odd behaviors, and useful nonsense.