By Donald Wittkowski
After the monstrous ocean storm of 1962 devastated the Jersey Shore, the townsfolk in Sea Isle City hoped to persuade tourists a year later that the beach community was in recovery mode and ready to begin welcoming visitors again.
They needed a big event to attract the crowds, so they created the Skimmer Festival in 1963, an old-fashioned celebration whose name was inspired by the Victorian-era straw hats worn by boaters during more genteel times.
Much of Sea Isle’s Victorian charms have disappeared since then, but the Skimmer Festival continues to be a huge draw all these years later, as evident by the thousands of people who crowded the Promenade and other parts of town Saturday for the weekend celebration. The festival wraps up Sunday, Father’s Day, with an antique car show on the Promenade.
City spokeswoman Kathleen Custer noted that tens of thousands of people annually attend the festival, Sea Isle’s largest summer event. It kicks off what Sea Isle officials and the local business community hope will be a busy and profitable summer vacation season.
“It’s our jumpstart to summer,” Custer said. “This, to many people, is when the summer season really starts.”
Combining kiddie amusements with a sprawling outdoor food court and 350 vendors lining the Promenade, the festival is overwhelmingly popular with families.
“Families love this event, because there’s truly something for everybody,” Custer said.
Excursion Park, the city’s entertainment hub next to the beach, was transformed Saturday into a children’s playground of free amusement rides, face-painting and live music.
Mike Chase, of Middle Township, was accompanied by his daughters, Oriah, 6, and Thea, 4. His wife, Aimee, was working at one of the festival’s vendor booths, selling pictures made of sea glass.
Chase said his family attends the Skimmer Festival every year, drawn by the combination of child-friendly rides and a foodies’ paradise that included hotdogs, hamburgers, French fries, funnel cakes, ice cream and many other seashore favorites.
“It’s something fun for the kids to do. There’s also nice, good food,” he said.
Oriah and little sister Thea had a full day of activities planned.
“We’re going to go on the rides, we’re getting our faces painted, then we’re going to the booth where they have the sea glass pictures and then we’ll go back to our grandmother’s house,” Oriah said, describing their busy agenda while sounding out of breath at the same time.
Encouraged by their father, both Oriah and Thea climbed the steps to enter a two-level bounce house that resembled a cartoon version of a fire department station. Earlier, they had gone on a ride that featured a giant slide.
Speaking of giants, Mackie the Stiltwalker, all 8 feet, 4 inches of him, deftly made his way through the crowds packing the Promenade. The colossal entertainer, whose real name is John McNair, invited children to run between his soaring stilts.
“All my height is in my hat,” McNair joked.
The 68-year-old McNair, who has been stiltwalking for 36 years, said the joy he gives to children is one of the main reasons he has stayed in the entertainment business for so long.
“It’s all about having fun,” he said. “Life is too short and there are too many problems in the world, so let’s have some fun. Let’s show people the best that Sea Isle and Cape May County have to offer.”
T.J. Trzaska, 6, and his cousins, Riley and Olivia McGinley, were among the children who scampered between McNair’s stilts, squealing with laughter with each pass underneath him.
“It was really fun,” said 7-year-old Riley, while her sister, Olivia, 4, shook her head in agreement.
Asked what she thought when she first saw the towering stiltwalker coming toward her on the Promenade, Riley replied, “It was like, whoa!”
Mike McGinley, Riley and Olivia’s father, and Colleen Trzaska, T.J.’s mother, live in Pennsylvania but have summer homes in Sea Isle. They said the stiltwalker is the type of family entertainment that keeps them coming back to the Skimmer Festival every year.
“It’s a great, family-oriented festival,” McGinley said. “The kids love it, and there’s lots of good food.”
