News
Oysterfest Coming To RB In September
By John Burton
RED BANK - Plans are in the in the works for another borough event now scheduled for the early fall. Red Bank RiverCenter, the business alliance for the borough's special improvement district, is working with a local business owner and former mayor Edward J. McKenna and the Guinness Stout brewery on plans to cordon off the White St. municipal parking lot for a daylong event, tentatively called Oysterfest.
At a RiverCenter meeting held on June 7, McKenna said that the idea for the event sprung out of a conversation he had with Eugene Devlin, a borough resident who is a co-owner of the Dublin House restaurant and pub, 30 Monmouth St., about sponsoring an event that would feature musical acts, food vendors and such Guinness products as its signature Guinness stout, Smithwick's ale and Harp lager beer.
Nancy Adams, RiverCenter executive director said last week, "We've starting to work on it," and the project is still very much in the early stages. But plans call for about twothirds of the municipal lot to be closed off, with temporary fencing and with participants paying an entry fee, and with a stage and sound equipment set up in one section and other areas for food vendors and the Guinness trucks.
Devlin, Adams said, has had a long relationship with the Guinness people and served as a go-between for the event, which in previous years had been held in Asbury Park. "We'd like for the restaurants to showcase themselves," with hopes the majority of vendors would be local eateries, Adams said. Proceeds for the event would benefit two cancer charities and RiverCenter operating funds, she said.
The event could attract as many as 15-20,000 people, McKenna said. "It's a pretty exciting event."
RiverCenter would likely contract with a consultant who has experience in organizing these events to get this one up and running, according to Adams, and plans call for it to be held on Sunday, Sept. 26, two weeks after the annual street fair to benefit the borough's volunteer fire department, which is also one of the borough's major annual events.
"The borough has been extremely cooperative," assured McKenna, who served as mayor for 16 years, from 1991 to 2007. But when approached about the event, especially given it would use borough property, Mayor Pasquale Menna seemed unaware of the planning. "I haven't seen any proposal," he said.
Guinness has been involved in similar events around the country for years and is planning to participate in this event, too, though no other details were available at this time, this week said a representative for Diageo, the British owned world's largest spirits company that owns Guinness.
