Downtown Ocean Grove not so busy on Bamboozle weekend
"The amount of hype for Bamboozle drove away some of our normal customers."
The scene on Ocean Grove’s Main Avenue Saturday afternoon was not as quiet as downtown Asbury Friday night, but some business owners are still expressing disappointment at the lack of crowds this weekend.
“We’ve actually been slower than what we normally would do on a Saturday,” said Richard O’Reilly, manager of Barbaric Bean Coffee Roasters. “It’s not bad; it’s hard to be bad in this kind of weather. But we were expecting a mid-summer type of rush.”
O’Reilly suspects the Main Avenue businesses are slow because their regulars thought it would be too busy.
“The amount of hype for Bamboozle drove away our normal customers because they thought there wouldn’t be any parking,” he said. “It’s almost hysterical.”
Despite slightly lower sales, O’Reilly still feels Bamboozle is good for the area.
“A girl from Brazil came in yesterday and was like, ‘I was at Coachella last month,'” O’Reilly said. “I think it’s great that Asbury Park is now in the same sentence as Coachella. That’s a good conversation to be in. And it’s good for Ocean Grove, and it’s good for business.”
Fusion Jewelry, a new business on Main Street, was enjoying a “not too bad” day, said co-owner Kurt Cavano. “Other businesses said it was slow … but a lot of locals are out,” he added.
“Kids aren’t going to spend money,” said co-owner Janet Mazur Cavano of yesterday’s younger crowds. “Really the day’s still young. Lots of people are out there. It’s looking up.”
And a few doors down, at Yvonne’s Café, the restaurant was “slower than normal but not dead,” according to manager Chris Rash.
“The concert started at 2 so we had a rush before that, but as soon as the concert started, we slowed down,” he said.
Dave Fernicola, owner of Day’s Ice Cream a few streets over, said both Day’s and the adjacent Starving Artist café were less busy than a typical Saturday, as shown in photo at top. But he, too, was optimistic about what Bamboozle will bring to town in the long run.
“I’m a big fan of trying new things,” he said. “Who knows what it’ll be like in the future?”
