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The first of four Thursday night street parties in June — dubbed “Vibe in the Streets” — starts tonight at 5:00 p.m. in the downtown business district.

The event is organized by APVibe, a marketing campaign to promote downtown Asbury Park as a dining and cultural destination. For the four Thursdays this month, vehicular traffic on Cookman Avenue, from Grand Avenue to Emory Street, will be replaced with foot traffic, in-street dining and drinking, musical acts, games and live art demonstrations. Vibe in the Streets will last from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

“We want people to come in and experience the downtown,” said Rose Crean, who organized the APVibe campaign with Morgan Sackman. “To bring people into town on an off-night, really, is the most important thing. It’s not Saturday night – the city is not booming on a Thursday and it’s a good reason for people to come and to do something a little different.”

“We also really wanted to support the core businesses in this area,” Sackman said.

Downtown developer Carter Sackman has provided the initial funding for the APVibe initiative. Morgan Sackman is the daughter of Carter Sackman.

For the Vibe in the Streets event, Brickwall Tavern, Baca Sports Lounge and Old Man Rafferty’s have extended their liquor licenses through catering permits approved by the city, according to director of commerce and economic development Tom Gilmour. The catering permit allows people to purchase drinks outside and walk around the event area with them, he said.

“The general idea is to bring people into the city,” said Gilmour.

To book the bands for the event, Crean and Sackman enlisted the help of Jon Leidersdorf of Lake House Productions on Lake Avenue. The lineup includes The Reason Why, Matt O’Ree Band, Old News and Thomas Wesley Stern.

Graffiti artists will also participate in the Vibe in the Streets.

“We have Jay Mack organizing live graffiti art for us…He is actually building a big cube that is basically going to be a four-sided easel and each side will have a different artist doing live graffiti art during the span of each event,” said Crean.

The ultimate use of the “big cube” of graffiti art will be determined after the conclusion of the events.

“That’s the fun part – we can do whatever we want,” said Crean. “I think every artist is going to have a different idea of what to do with it. It’s such a fun way to showcase each artist. When they do it live they do such a good job.”

There is a charitable element to the party series as well. People who bring non-perishable items will receive surprise gift bags filled with promotional items and discounts from businesses throughout Asbury Park. There will be multiple collection sites present at all four events to collect the food donations, which will go to the non-profit Move for Hunger organization.

As for weather cancellations, Sackman and Crean have reserved the first Thursday in July as a rain date just in case any of the four Thursdays are rained out.

“We’ve been telling business owners that this is something we want to grow,” said Sackman. “So maybe next year it’s not just in this confined area and we can get more people involved.”

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