Is Toms River Fest a success or failure?
In 2005, Toms River hosted its first annual Toms River Festival. A festival that was to showcase the newly built Ritacco Center (a 2,500 seat arena built on the grounds of Toms River High School North), which was funded by Toms River taxpayers. In addition to show off the new arena, also called the Poland Springs Arena through a sponsorship deal with the Maine bottling company, the festival was to show to the rest of the world that Toms River can be a viable player in the New Jersey recreation scene.
Kelly Clarkson led the charge with performances by Maroon 5, Clay Aiken, Jesse McCartney and Keith Urban. Tickets were $25 per person just to get inside the grounds and the event played out like an ala-carte menu. $2 for a ride on the roller coaster, $2 for the ferris wheel, ticket charges for the performers, but the event ended up becoming a success with over 70,000 visitors attending the festival. The festival generated nearly $400,000 in revenue.
Work quickly began on Toms River Festival 2006. Top names like Hillary Duff, Rihanna, Live and even LeAnn Rimes were added to the concert roster. Joan Jett, Meat Loff, KC and the Sunshine Band and Rick Springfield were invited from whatever entertainment purgatory they had been waiting in. Hillary Duff even sold over 10,000 tickets.
The organizers boasted this year's Toms River Festival will have 100,000 visitors per day. Instead, attendance was only 45,000 over the entire 4 day festival, down 25,000 from the previous year. The township blamed the lackluster turnout on a heat wave that was passing through. The festival however was a political success as Dover Township used proceeds from the festivals to rebuild Castle Park, a wooden outdoor playstructure that was deemed unsafe and demolished, only a few years after it was built.
Does Toms River need a multi-million dollar yearly festival when Ocean County's Fair at Miller Airport is already a well entrenched Ocean County tradition? I attended Toms River Festival 2005. I also frequently attend the Ocean County Fair. In my opinion, we have much more fun at the simplified Ocean County Fair. It's much more of a home town family atmosphere. To me, Toms River Festival seemed like a corporate sponsored event with the sole intent on pulling every last dollar out of the pockets of attendees. I chose not to attend Toms River Fest 2006 not because the heat, but because of the unenjoyable experience I had in 2005 with pay per attraction, bus shuttling, long lines and long waits. Had it been 75 degrees and sunny those four days, I still would have preferred to take my family to the boardwalk in Seaside or even Great Adventure. Spending a lot of money to walk around a parking lot and high school baseball fields jam packed shoulder to shoulder, being forced to pay extra for each attraction once you're in just doesn't seem like the fun I was expecting.
On paper, Toms River Fest is a win-win proposition for the Township and those who attend but rumors are spreading that Toms River is debating on whether or not there will be a Toms River Fest 2007.
At the end of the day, Toms River Fest is a great idea for the community of Toms River and Ocean County, but the organizers may just be stretching their boundaries a bit too far. A Toms River Fest on a more hometown scale would be just as successful, if not more than luring in national acts and national has-beens. You can build a pretty decent event just by bringing in talent from the New Jersey area, scaling down a little and focusing more on family entertainment and less on high end entertainment.
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