West Newsmagazine 8-15-18

18 I CELEBRATE WILDWOOD I
August 15, 2018
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By JESSICA MESZAROS
Since 1995, Celebrate Wildwood has
been a day of camaraderie and fun, commemorating
the city’s founding. After 23
years, the celebration has continued to
grow and prosper alongside the Wildwood
community, which has blossomed into a
population of over 35,000 residents.
Originally called Founder’s Day, the
festival became known as Celebrate Wildwood
when the Founder’s Day activities
merged with the Wildwood Art Festival.
This year, the celebration will take place
over the course of one day instead of two.
The event will be held on Saturday, Aug.
25 on Main Street, otherwise known as the
city’s Town Center. The event begins with
a parade at 10 a.m. and concludes with a
fireworks show at 9:15 p.m., or following
the end of the last concert.
Also new this year, by popular demand,
is the split of the fine arts component into
its own event. The Wildwood Art Festival
will now be a standalone, two-day event on
Oct. 20 and 21, marking the first time the
city has had an autumn festival.
According to Wildwood Superintendent
of Parks and Recreation Gary Crews, the
split was due to the popularity of the arts
component and to provide a better climate
for the artists and their artwork. Already,
over 80 artists have registered for the October
event.
Although this year brings changes, Celebrate
Wildwood is bringing back a flurry of
crowd-pleasing favorites, with a plethora
of craft booths, food vendors, a Wine &
Beer Garden, and activities for all ages.
According to Crews, the event currently
has more than 103 booths, with the final
tally subject to change.
Crews, who has been with the city for
almost nine years, said the festival has
continued to grow year after year in the
number of booths and attendees.
The festival is full of family-friendly
entertainment, including free pony rides.
This year’s parade theme is “Take a Walk on
the Wildwood Side.”
“Last year, the attendance was overwhelming,”
Crews said. “The concert on
that Saturday evening, it was just phenomenal.
We were running out of room
for people. This year, the splitting of
Founder’s Day and the Art Festival, it’s
going to be quite interesting. Now the
upcoming Art Festival will take on more
of a fine art, wine, soft background music
type of event. Celebrate Wildwood will
still be a family event, and we’ll have the
music playing all day, we’ll have the big
concerts on Saturday evening and tons of
kids activities. Tons of food. It will be a
jam-packed Saturday on the 25th, that’s
for sure.”
Food, crafts and authors galore
For audiences on the hunt for local goods or
one-of-a-kind treasures, look no further than
Celebrate Wildwood’s craft area, of which
most booths are open 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m..
The craft booths feature an array of
locally crafted and sourced goods, including
children’s toys, lawn décor, organic
bath products, local photography, handmade
sculptures, jewelry and more. Visitors
can shop in one convenient location.
For those still in search of the perfect
summer read, various authors will have
their own booths showcasing their books.
Fans can stop in, chat with the authors, and
pick up a new book or two.
Some authors who will be in attendance
include Clark Beim-Esche, Laine Boyd,
Dee Livers, Jim Merkel, Candy Pettiford,
Tandy Schaller and Terry Schreiter.
“We’ve done this the past several years
and it has proven to be very popular,”
Crews said. “There’s even children’s books
and materials like that. Some of the books
are pretty cute.”
See WILDWOOD, page 22