Eighteen listings in this directory carry the food festival category, and they are spread across nine months rather than clustered in summer. The earliest is January 31 in Burlington County. The latest is October 17 in the Pine Barrens.
Ten of the eighteen list free admission, which for a food festival usually means you pay by the plate rather than at a gate. Below is the full calendar in date order, with what each event is actually organized around.
Winter and spring: a January outlier, then April
Mount Holly Fire & Ice Festival on January 31 is the only winter food event on this calendar and the earliest dated listing in the entire directory. It is free, with food, live music and kids activities in a single Saturday.
April brings two very different formats. Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival runs April 11 with food and live music. Two weeks later, Lambertville Shad Festival takes April 25 and 26 on the Delaware River, listed as cultural, artisan and food festival together, with crafts, food and live music. Shad is a river fish that runs upstream in spring, which is why this one lands in April and not July.
May opens with three in nine days. Ocean City Spring Block Party on May 2 is free with crafts, food, live music and kids activities. New Jersey Seafood Festival in Belmar runs May 15 to 17, free, with crafts, food and live music, and it is the only listing here that puts seafood in the name. Hoboken Spring Arts & Music Festival closes the run on May 17, free, in a compact downtown grid you can cover entirely on foot.
June: two blueberry festivals, nine days apart
New Jersey is a blueberry state, and June proves it twice. Whitesbog Blueberry Summer Fest runs June 19 in Browns Mills, a single free Saturday listed as food festival, agricultural and family, with crafts, food, live music and kids activities. Whitesbog sits in the Pine Barrens, which is the agricultural region that grows the crop.
Red, White & Blueberry Festival follows on June 28 in Hammonton, Atlantic County, with crafts, food, kids activities and live music. Nine days separate the two, and both sit in South Jersey, so catching both in the same June is realistic without a hotel.
Overlapping both is L.E.A.D. Fest State Fair in West Windsor, June 26 to July 5, a ten day run listed as family, food festival and music, with fireworks, rides, live music and kids activities. It is the only food festival on this calendar that also carries rides.
July: barbecue, a feast, and street food
New Jersey State BBQ Championship & Anglesea Blues Festival runs July 10 to 12 in North Wildwood. It is the one event here where competitions and food appear together in the listing, which is the structural difference between a barbecue championship and a barbecue festival: the cooking is judged.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Festival in Hammonton runs July 13 to 18 and carries an 1875 founding year in our records, the earliest founding date of any listing in this directory. It is categorized as cultural, food festival and family, and its feature list is the fullest of any food event here: fireworks, food, live music, a parade, rides and free admission.
Summer in the Street in Toms River takes July 18, a single free day with food, live music and kids activities.
September 19: three food festivals, one Saturday
September 19 is the most contested date on the New Jersey food calendar. Three separate food festivals run that day, in three towns across two counties.
All About Downtown Street Fair in Jersey City covers Hudson County with crafts, food, live music and kids activities, free. Downtown Toms River Comfort Food Festival runs the same day in Ocean County, free, with food and live music. Point Pleasant Beach Festival of the Sea also runs September 19, with crafts, food and live music, farther up the same Ocean County coast.
If you are on the Shore that weekend, Toms River and Point Pleasant Beach are the same county and worth attempting together. Jersey City is a separate trip.
The month ends with Irish Fall Festival in North Wildwood, September 25 to 27, listed as cultural, music and food festival, with crafts, food, live music and a parade.
October: Oktoberfest, then cranberries
Oktoberfest at Historic Smithville runs October 3 and 4 in Galloway, Atlantic County, free, with crafts, food and kids activities across two days.
The calendar closes with Chatsworth Cranberry Festival on October 17 and 18, in the Pine Barrens community that sits inside New Jersey's cranberry growing country. It is listed as craft, seasonal and food festival, with crafts, food and live music, which is the standard shape of a harvest festival: the crop is the theme and the vendor hall is the substance.
One note for cranberry hunters. The Cranberry Festival of Fine Arts and Crafts on Farnsworth in Bordentown, October 3 and 4, shares the fruit in its name but is categorized as craft and artisan rather than food festival. Go to Chatsworth for the crop, Bordentown for the makers.
How to read a food festival listing before you drive
Three features do most of the work. Free admission tells you whether there is a gate at all. Competitions tell you whether the food is being judged, which usually means more producers and longer lines. Crafts tell you whether the event is half vendor market, which changes how long you will actually stay.
Prices, menus and vendor lists are not in our records and change season to season, so confirm those with each event directly.
