Hear Philly: The Shore Thing - Hydrofest, Irish Weekend and Monster Trucks Invade The Beach
By Andrew Kramer
WILDWOOD, N.J. (CBS) - Before one of the biggest celebrations of the entire year in Wildwood, a popular event for boating enthusiasts will make a splash as John Siciliano with the Greater Willdwoods Tourism Authority points out:
"The Hydrofest Weekend, which is September 13th and 14th, is a sanctioned APBA event that happens on Sunset Lake in the Wildwoods."
He says it's an international powerboat racing event that has plenty to offer:
"There's a six-block festival with craft shows, food vendors that kind of go along with it. What you'll see if you're here, there's inboard powered hydroplanes and flat bottoms that will compete in a one-mile oval course in the full view of a spectator area and it's a free event to come and watch."
The New Jersey Governor's Cup will be on the line during Hydrofest, which runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.
The following weekend is one of the biggest of the year in the Wildwoods, highlighted by the ever-so-popular Irish Weekend.
"It is a big weekend here in the Wildwoods because we have pretty much three large events that happen simultaneously," Siciliano says. "In North Wildwood, we have the Irish Fall Festival which is a three-day event. Irish music, all the bars are open with Irish entertainment, Irish vendors outside under tents. That's a pretty big event on its own; I mean they bring in close to 100,000 people to that event over the weekend."
Siciliano says that's just one of the options September 18th to 21st in the Wildwoods:
"Wildwood Crest has the Seafarer's celebration which is down at their Centennial Park. All day they have crafters all around Sunset Lake, and then at night they have live music, 7:30 p.m. starts at Centennial Park. They close with fireworks at 9 p.m. And, on the Wildwood Boardwalk all weekend we have our classic car show, which brings upwards of 800-900 classic cars that line our boardwalk and our streets. And inside the Wildwoods Convention Center there's an actual classic car auction which is going on."
After that, start your engines, as an event you can only see on the Wildwood beaches invades town the last weekend in September.
"We literally have about eight to ten monster trucks, which come down," Siciliano says.
He says there's a track that's built on right on the Wildwood beach that the drivers will race on:
"They do demonstrations, they do some things at different times when they're not actually competing against spectators, but they have several race times and show times for that weekend. There's merchandising, there's some food vendors there. You can take a monster truck ride on the beach. It's really, really cool to watch.
The Monster Truck Beach Nationals ride into Wildwood September 26th to 28th.
For more information on all Wildwood events, go to www.wildwoodsnj.com.
And that's The Shore Thing for this month.
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