While beaches are a well-known summer draw to South Jersey, summer festivals give smaller communities a sense of pride and provide an economic boost.
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South Jersey beaches have long been a destination for millions of tourists over multiple generations. In recent times, the plethora of festivals and fairs over the summer and fall are also drawing crowds.
Whether it is June's Blueberry Festival in Hammonton, the Haddonfield Crafts and Fine Arts Festival in July or the upcoming Atlantic City Latino Festival on Sept. 6, visitors are flocking to these events as one-time excursions or annual visits.
"I'm 62 years old and I've been coming here since I was 14," said Sherry Daniels Thomson, of Blackwood, while she was recently attending July's Our Lady of Mount Carmel Festival in Hammonton. "My family's from here and it just seems to get bigger every year. I'm coming for the sausage and pepper [sandwiches] myself."
New Jersey attracted more than 123 million tourists in 2024, according to the latest report from the New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism. The American Coastal Coalition said that South Jersey's Atlantic and Cape May counties alone provided for nearly one-third of that record-setting economic tourism punch.
Jane Bokunewicz, faculty director of Stockton University's Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality & Tourism, said that while the figures are not broken down into how many tourists hit the beaches or visited festivals, it was safe to say that festivals made a significant tourism impact.
The Our Lady of Mount Carmel Festival bills itself as the oldest Italian American Festival in the country. The July festival celebrated its 150th anniversary this year. For one week, the empty lot at St. Joseph's Church was turned into a bustling carnival midway with rides, a large beer garden, musical stage and enough food variety that would make any town's Restaurant Week jealous.
Ron Virgilio's tie to the festival dates to his great-grandfather.
"My great-grandfather, grandfather and father were members of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Society," which puts on the annual festival, Virgilio said in front of a huge grill that churned out smells of polish sausage, chicken and beef. "My son will join when he's old enough. This is definitely a family here."
Beer garden Chairman Mark Krason, who made sure all the kegs kept serving as his wife navigated their 11-month-old granddaughter in a stroller around the festival grounds, said people visit for different reasons.
"Look around you. Everybody's got a smile on their face and that's how it is every year," said Krason, who has been part of the society for 40 years. "Some come for the sandwiches, some for the variety of cannolis and some come just to see people who they haven't seen since the festival last year."
Bokunewicz said it is that tradition and spirit that makes many South Jersey festivals a draw. For many towns and counties, the festivals mean more than tourism.
"They build a sense of pride in the community," he said. "The authentic stories posted on social media generated by people enjoying the festivals create a positive image of the city where people may want to live there, or invest and open a business there. These festivals tend to have a lot more benefits."