Jersey City To Celebrate Bergen Square Day With Daylong Festival

JERSEY CITY, NJ — Jersey City is celebrating Bergen Square and the 360th anniversary of the founding of Bergen with Bergen Square Day this weekend. On Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. the celebration will be held at the intersection of Bergen Avenue and Academy Street.

Bergen Square Day 2021 also includes this year’s Bergen Apple Fest. This annual event is centered around the Apple Tree House, future home of the Museum of Jersey City History.

Part of the historic home of the indigenous Lenni Lenape people, and the site of the first permanent European settlement in what is now New Jersey, Bergen Square today is a vibrant, bustling community where residents, shoppers, commuters, students, and churchgoers come together to form an extraordinary, unique urban enclave. Bergen Square has welcomed immigrants from around the world for centuries and now flourishes as the historical and cultural wellspring of Jersey City.

This year's event is the second annual Bergen Square Day. The first was held in May 2019. The 2020 event, which marked the 360th anniversary of the founding of Bergen, was canceled because of the pandemic. Bergen Square Day 2021 is themed “Bergen Square 360+” in recognition of the anniversary just passed.

This festival of history, culture, and autumn will feature activities and performances for all ages, including live bands, a dj, spoken word, dance, pumpkin painting, apple treats for sale, tours of local historic sites, local food and merchant vendors, and community organizations. Featured acts this year include The Speranza Theater Company’s staging of "Walk by the Way of the Moon,” The Spirit of Life Ensemble, Rescue Poetix, and The Jersey City Dance Academy. Poet David Mills and “New York and New Jersey Slavery and the Colonial Settlers,” presented by Hudson County Community College, kicks off Bergen Square Day at 11 a.m. at the Apple Tree House. Deejay Khadi will be spinning Afro Beats and a full assortment of music at Bergen Avenue and Newkirk Street all afternoon.

"I believe this event will renew and re-establish Bergen Square on the map and in the public consciousness as an important historical and cultural destination," said local historian James Dievler, who is organizing the event. "The event will celebrate and feature our local talent and our extraordinarily diverse community," added Dr. Dievler, a member of the Journal Square Community Association’s board of trustees. He added, we are especially excited this year to locate part of the event at the Apple Tree House, future home of the Museum of Jersey City History.” Dr. Dievler serves on the Executive Committee of the new museum’s board of trustees.