Olde Freehold Day Promises A Community Celebration

FREEHOLD, NJ — Olde Freehold Day is coming up soon - on Saturday, Aug. 5. And lots of activities are planned for the celebration at Lake Topanemus Park.

Olde Freehold Day is a community event dating back to the nation's 1976 Bicentennial, featuring food, local crafters, vendors, civic organizations, games and activities for the kids, boating on the pond and live music, according to the borough.

The free event runs from noon to 5 p.m. on Aug. 5.

There are two ways to get to the event, the borough says:

• Visitors may take a free shuttle bus to Lake Topanemus Park from the Monmouth County Court House parking lot between Court Street and Pond Road in Freehold.
• Or visitors can choose to park at the lake’s back entrance on Robertsville Road, Freehold. Freehold Veterans of Foreign Wars will be there to help with parking. The enjoy a hayride to the festivities through the scenic park. A donation is suggested for parking which benefits the VFW, which supports local veterans’ charities.

If you don’t feel like taking the bus or driving yourself, consider joining the Neighborhood Connections to Health and the Mayor’s Wellness Committee on a bike ride to the pond. For details, contact Megan Valeski 302-222-6774.

At the event, visitors can enjoy the Kids Zone and teenage activities, including a petting zoo, bouncy slide, pony rides, treehouse slide, hula hoop contest, games, a rock climbing wall and the Car Smash. All these events are free of charge.

In addition, Olde Freehold Day will feature paddle boats and canoes to take out on the pond. These water crafts are available to rent for a nominal fee.

Other fee-based items include various food offerings: both savory (hot dogs, hamburgers, empenadas, BBQ, melts and soups) and sweet (cookies, pies, cakes, coffee, and cosmic kettle corn). The Frankie Fed's On The Go pizza truck will debut there, too, the borough said.

We Are The Future is bringing back the dunk tank as a fundraiser for a community youth organization: Try your luck at throwing a ball to dunk local community leaders.

Guests will have a day of musical offerings: Sawmill Run Old Time Band is kicking off the festivities at noon, followed by the Freehold Circle, a group of musicians who first met in Freehold High School back in the Sixties.

Next in the lineup, straight from playing the first ever Olde Freehold Day (and many stops in between) will be Step Aside. A band new to the event will perform, also, the Bryan Hansen Band, the borough says.

The day’s music fest will end with the one=man and band that always closes out the show on Olde Freehold Day, the Eddie Testa Band.

According to the event's social media site, among the members of the Olde Freehold Day Committee are:

• Judi Guy
• Roger Kane
• Mary Randolph
• Billy Anderson
• Barbara Kane
• Lisa Tiedemann
• Tracy Moriarty
• Sascha Duckenfield
• Jean Holtz
• Richard Kane
• Jeanne Vigeant
• Andy Magioncalda
• Jill Magioncalda
• Carl Beams
• Babe Warrington
• Rebecca Ponder

For more information, visit https://www.oldefreeholdday.com or check out the latest developments on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/OldeFreeholdDay.