By MADDY VITALE
Get ready for some family-friendly fun delivered in one popular tradition in Sea Isle City – Skimmer Festival weekend on Saturday, June 17 and Sunday, June 18.
There will be an array of food, shopping and amusements on Saturday, followed by an antique auto show and parade on Sunday as a grand finale to a fantastic weekend.
Throngs of visitors and residents are expected to take advantage of what has traditionally been a major attraction and huge start to the summer season year after year.
“Following a very busy Memorial Day weekend, there are typically a few weeks that are much quieter,” noted Sea Isle City Public Information Officer Katherine Custer. “Skimmer Weekend really is a terrific way to kick off the summer for many people.”
Skimmer Festival derives its name from the straw hats that Victorian gentlemen often wore during the summer season.
“With that traditional in mind, this is a very traditional, family-friendly festival,” Custer said.
The festival, hosted by Sea Isle City’s Division of Tourism, will begin Saturday, June 17, with a Seaside Vendors Market from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. along the Promenade.
There will be a crafts, clothing, artwork, household wares and other items for sale.
And when it comes to food, visitors will get their fill from a selection of local foods at the Skimmer Food Court on JFK Boulevard, adjacent to the Promenade.
With shopping and dining in abundance, there will also be plenty of other things to occupy and amuse the little ones, including free amusement rides at Excursion Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
There will also be other free activities at Excursion Park on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. – including Face Painters, a Photo Booth, an Art Bar, Balloon Artists, and live music by Steve Moore & The MIA Band.
For Day 2 of the festival and on Father’s Day, the Skimmer Antique Auto Show will showcase many classic cars on the Promenade, north of JFK Boulevard, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, June 18.
Any owners of classic cars and trucks who would like to participate in the Antique Auto Show can find registration information on the Skimmer Festival calendar listing at www.VISITSICNJ.com.
Like Saturday, there will be live music performed. On Sunday, The Snake Brothers Band will perform from 10 a.m. to noon under the Gazebo on the Promenade at JFK Boulevard.
Afterwards, Sea Isle Mayor Leonard Desiderio will present trophies to the winners of the auto Show during a ceremony at 1 p.m. on the Promenade at JFK Boulevard.
The grand finale will come afterward, around 1:30 p.m. Spectators will delight in watching the Skimmer Antique Auto Parade.
The parade will exit the Promenade at 44th Street, travel south on Pleasure Avenue to 93rd Street, then continue north on Landis Avenue from 93rd Street to JFK Boulevard.
Sea Isle’s Skimmer Festival weekend traces its roots to the early 1960s. After the monstrous storm in 1962 devastated the Jersey Shore, the residents in Sea Isle hoped to persuade tourists a year later that the beach community was in recovery mode and ready to begin welcoming visitors again.
But they needed a large event to attract 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.
For more information about 2023 Skimmer Festival Weekend, call the Sea Isle City Tourism Office at 609-263-8687, go to www.VISITSICNJ.com or stop by the Sea Isle City Welcome Center at 300 JFK Boulevard.
