By Terry Gauthier Muessig, Asbury Park Press, N.J.
Jul. 31–The Highlands Clamfest is being held today through Sunday between Bay Avenue and Shore Drive at Waterwitch Avenue.
The hours are 6 to 11 p.m. today and Friday, noon to 11 p.m. Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday.
The event features food vendors, amusement rides, games of chance, entertainment and a tour of outer space via the NASA Exploration traveling truck.
Today and Sunday are family bracelet nights. The cost of a bracelet is $20, which entitles the wearer to unlimited amusement rides.
Sunday is contest day. The baby costume parade is at 1 p.m.; the clam-shucking contest is at 3 p.m. and the all-you-can-eat clam eating contest is at 3:30 p.m.
As borough officials scurried to make room for a 60-foot tractor-trailer Wednesday, employees from a party store were putting up a 100-foot tent, and restaurateurs were busy setting up tables in preparation for the 14th annual Highlands Clamfest.
The tractor-trailer carrying a NASA Exploration exhibit is a new attraction to the Clamfest. The 18-wheeler had to be escorted into the borough by the Police Department, and the designated spot for the truck was questionable — at first.
To make room for the four-foot overhangs on the truck, borough officials had to cut branches from a tree at the curb line and call in the fire marshal to approve the spot because the truck is near a fire hydrant.
Four days ago, Sunshine Amusements Co. of Florida arrived in the borough to begin setting up its rides for the four-day event, said Carla Cefalo-Braswell, the president of the Highlands Business Partnership.
And, as deliverymen went about their business, Dodie Bower, the president of the Highlands Garden Club, was busy pruning the flower beds around the gazebo in Huddy Park.
The Clamfest is from 6 to 11 p.m. today and Friday, noon to 11 p.m. Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday. The event is held at the corner of Bay and Waterwitch avenues. The festivities’ hub of is based on the streets around Huddy Park.
“We are very excited about this year’s event,” Cefalo-Braswell said.
Many of the borough’s restaurants are participating in the event, Cefalo-Braswell said. And, although the featured delicacy is clams — cooked and raw — the vendors will be providing Italian, Mexican and American cuisines.
For the landlubbers, the borough’s fire department will be cooking hot dogs, hamburgers and corn on the cob.
“We also have the traditional carnival favorites,” such as funnel cake, cotton candy and jellied apples, Cefalo-Braswell said.
The event is home to a clam-shucking contest and all-you-can-eat clam-eating contest, as well as a baby costume parade contest.
The family-oriented nonalcoholic event has amusement rides for all ages, live entertainment, games of chance, and arts and crafts. The organizers, the Highlands Business Partnership, also has added a new attraction to the mix this year.
Cefalo-Braswell said she received a telephone call a few months ago from Shannon J. Ridinger, the outreach coordinator for NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., asking if the space center could be part of the Clamfest.
The traveling exhibit is inside the 30-by-60-foot trailer and was created by NASA, Ridinger said.
About 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, the tractor-trailer rolled into town.
The exhibit consists of a 12-minute tour, beginning with a simulated visit to the moon. Visitors will have a chance to build a lunar outpost and touch an actual moon rock.
The moon rock at the exhibit was brought back to Earth in December 1972 by astronaut Jack Schmidt, Ridinger said. Originally, the moon rock weighed 8,000 grams. The rock at the exhibit weighs .14 grams and was cut from the original rock, she said.
Visitors will explore a virtual model of the moon and interact with the lunar surface on a video screen to learn about NASA’s research and future plans for exploration. The second half of the exhibit features a hexagonal, interactive theater where visitors will learn about NASA’s plan of returning to the moon in new vehicles currently being developed to create a working environment that will help ensure safer, more effective future exploration into the solar system.
The free exhibit will be open from 6 to 11 p.m. today and Friday, 3 to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
As always, admission to the Clamfest is free, and the event takes place rain or shine.
The Clamfest is a nonalcoholic event. However, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6902, adjacent to Huddy Park, will have a beer garden, and the Claddagh Bar and Restaurant and Driftwood Bar, both on Bay Avenue will have “happy as a clam” drink specials for the duration of the clamfest.
For more information, call (732) 291-4713 or visit www.highlandsnj.com on the Web.
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