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Thanks to this weekend’s warm and mostly dry weather, Memorial Day was a boon for both beach badge sales and local businesses.

About 10,000 daily beach badges were sold over the course of the weekend, according to Beach Safety Supervisor Joe Bongiovanni — 3,500 on Saturday, 2,500 on Sunday and 4,000 on Monday.

This is slightly less than last year’s Memorial Day Weekend numbers were, but the beach is still ahead of where it was at this time last year, he said. He credited this to a surge in seasonal badge purchases and gift certificates over the winter holidays. The beach’s numbers have grown 10 to 20 percent annually over the last several years, he said.

Bongiovanni said the lower Memorial Day Weekend sales this year were likely caused by the rainy, cloudy weather on Sunday.

“A lot of people come from North Jersey and New York, so a bad weather forecast affects the whole day,” he said.

He credited last weekend’s Bamboozle music festival with bringing more people into town, saying many concessionaires told him their customers had come back this weekend after seeing Asbury Park’s boardwalk for the first time during the festival.

The city also hosted a carnival west of Convention Hall across the street from Bradley Park on Kingsley Avenue [pictured above].

Business owners on the boardwalk were pleased with the business they saw this past weekend, as well.

“Memorial Day Weekend was great,” said Connie Sullivan, who owns boardwalk deli Sully’s with her husband, Francis Sullivan. Sully’s opens at 7 a.m. each day and doesn’t close “until the last person leaves” at night, she said. “I see everything.”

This past weekend, Sullivan did see a drop-off in beach business early on Sunday, although the rest of the weekend was busy. As for the rest of the season, Sullivan is optimistic.

“We’re supposed to have a hot and dry summer,” she said. “As long as it’s nice out, we’ll knock it out of the park.”

Rob French, general manager of the Cubacan restaurant on the boardwalk, said this Memorial Day Weekend was busier than last year’s, but “not by much.”

“The boardwalk was packed, the beaches were packed,” he said. “I anticipate this summer we’ll be exponentially busier than last. Asbury Park is on the map because of Bamboozle. Our buzz is far greater than it used to be. Asbury Park is more of a destination now.”

Brand new boardwalk business Just Another Day’s ice cream parlor also “had a good weekend,” according to manager Tom Wilson.

The eatery’s clientele included “a mix of everything” this weekend, he said, “families, couples, kids, seniors. It ran the gamut.”

Just Another Day’s is an offshoot of Ocean Grove landmark Day’s Ice Cream.

“There were a lot of people who came in and said, ‘I can’t believe you’re here,'” Wilson said. “We’re happy to be here.”

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