The Newark Grounds NIGHT FEST produced with the Newark City Parks Foundation will serve as a pilot for a biannual event (occurring in summer and fall) designed to activate the newly established cultural corridor in downtown Newark, New Jersey.
The Summer program will take place Thursday, June 26, from 4 - 9pm in conjunction with the North to Shore Festival. This mini-festival will utilize the lower section of Mulberry Commons Park, adjacent to the Prudential Center, featuring a performance stage, a curated market area, and a picnic space for community gatherings.
The marketplace will emphasize care, local food initiatives, education, and handmade artisan goods. Local growers will offer crops for purchase, provide education on civic agriculture, and present healthy, Newark-grown picnicking options. (Full lineup to be announced the first week of June!) The initiative will fill the remainder of Mulberry Commons with community picnickers, encouraging attendees to bring their family and friends, a blanket and dinner setups.
The program will include art and history tours led by the local group Have You Met Newark. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore various aspects of the Newark Grounds footprint, including Four Corners Public Arts, Project for Empty Space, Gateways to Newark: Portraits, and select pieces from New Jersey Transit’s public art program. Register for the tour here.
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Newark Grounds is a walkable cultural corridor in Downtown Newark, New Jersey, featuring over 75 consecutive public artworks and dedicated arts and culture spaces. Led by Project for Empty Space, this initiative is a collaboration with the City of Newark Division of Art and Cultural Affairs, the City of Newark Arts and Education District, the City Parks Foundation, the Newark Alliance, the Greater Newark Convention and Visitors Bureau, Newark Arts, the Four Corners Public Arts Partnership, and the Rutgers University-Newark Design Consortium. The project connects Newark Penn Station to Teachers Village through an arts path.
About the North to Shore Festival:
The Prudential North to Shore Festival will return in June 2025 to kick off the Garden State summer with another three-city celebration of the arts, entertainment and new ideas.
Conceived by Governor Phil Murphy and First Lady Tammy Murphy, the Prudential North to Shore Festival aims to spotlight New Jersey’s role as a destination for the arts and entertainment and an incubator of new ideas and fresh talent.