By Laura D.C. Kolnoski
OCEANPORT – Promising a bigger, better, tastier experience, organizers have announced the second annual Bougie FoodieCon will again take place on the grounds of Fort Monmouth’s Russel Hall Saturday and Sunday, June 1 and 2.
The Boujee FoodieCon will feature food trucks, vendors, musical acts, a bar area, VIP tent, activities for kids and adults, and more. New purveyors have been added and previous participants, including Long Branch’s Butcher’s Block, will offer a diverse menu of specialty coffees, lobster rolls, a raw bar, pizza, pitas, baked goods, burgers, dim sum, gelato, and a paella bar by Albariño of Shrewsbury.
“We will have more food and more vendors,” said Melanie Carpenter, who co-founded sponsor organization CW Events with fellow Monmouth Beach resident Renee Lam-Whiteman. “Because of last year’s success, vendors became aware of what attendance can be so they will be prepared. We will be prepared.”
About 1,100 tickets were presold last year but after 4,500 attendees came through the gate over two days, some vendors ran out of food options. At press time, 35 vendors have signed on to par ticipate. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the gate on event days. Children 10 and under are admitted free of charge.
The event stage will feature musical acts So Watt, the Earth Monkeys, and Rubix Kube, while The Red Bank Exotic Car Club will have an exhibit both days. Children’s activities include face painting, a scavenger hunt and carnival games. Nicol Squash, which is preparing to open a new location at the fort’s RiverWalk Center, currently under construction, plans to set up a pickleball court for kids and adults. Line dancing will take place Saturday night.
This year’s bar will be “three times bigger,” Carpenter said. The VIP tent, presented by the Billy Vegas Supper Club, will have a “Miami Nights” theme. For an additional $50, guests can enjoy cocktail service with a cash bar and passed hors d’oeuvres.
Last year, organizers donated $5,500 in proceeds to the Oceanport First Aid Squad. This year, the goal is $15,000 in donations to be split between the squad and the Oceanport Fire Department.
“We learned our community was craving these kinds of events,” said Whiteman of last year’s inaugural experience. “We’ve added more to do, more enter tainment and are giving more. We want to bring the community together.”
For tickets and more information, visit boujee-foodie.com.
Michael Abboud, owner of Russel Hall, the fort’s former headquarters built in 1936, is again hosting the festival. He purchased the building inside the Oceanport Avenue gates in 2017 to house his private cloud provider firm Tether view. Other businesses and a satellite location of the Monmouth County Veterans Services Office also operate there.
With partner Chris Ilvento, Abboud also purchased and is redeveloping the 12-acre RiverWalk fort property nearby into a retail/commercial/entertainment complex. Both men are Oceanport residents.
The 1,126-acre former U.S. Army base has been undergoing a multifaceted redevelopment following its closure by the federal government in 2011. To date, FMERA has sold 34 parcels, and about 86 precent of the site is sold, under contract, in negotiations, or entering the request for proposals process. That includes Netflix, which is working toward purchasing an almost 300-acre site to construct a major production studio.
The article originally appeared in the March 28 – April 3, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
