Sea.Hear.Now 2026: The APV Guide to Making the Most of the Weekend

What to hear, what to explore and how to prepare for Asbury Park’s most distinctive festival

There are music festivals, and then there is Sea.Hear.Now.

For two days each September, Asbury Park’s beach, boardwalk and surrounding streets become part of one enormous experience—one where live music carries across the sand, professional surfers compete between the jetties, local art rises from the beach and thousands of people get to see the city APV loves from an entirely different perspective.

Asbury Park Vibes has been covering Sea.Hear.Now since the beginning, watching it grow from an ambitious new festival into one of the biggest annual music events in New Jersey. Through all that growth, what has kept the festival special is that it has never been only about placing major artists on stages. The music matters enormously, but so do the ocean, the surfing, the art, the wellness programming, the environmental initiatives and the unmistakable personality of Asbury Park.

Sea.Hear.Now returns to North Beach, Bradley Park and Atlantic Park on Saturday, September 19, and Sunday, September 20, 2026. Festival entrances open at noon each day, with programming scheduled to continue until approximately 10:30 p.m.

A Lineup Built for Discovery

Mumford & Sons will close Saturday night, while The Strokes will bring the festival to its conclusion on Sunday. The headliners are only the beginning of a lineup that moves through alternative rock, punk, reggae, soul, electronic music, indie, folk and several generations of familiar favorites.

Saturday’s Surf Stage builds from Steph Strings and Men at Work to Chaka Khan, The Offspring and Mumford & Sons. Over on the Park Stage, Jarod Clemons opens the day before a lineup that includes Fitz and the Tantrums, The All-American Rejects and The War on Drugs. The Sand Stage brings Anders Osborne, Tom Odell, Susanna Hoffs and Shaggy to the beach.

Sunday offers an equally wide-ranging day. Ben Howard, Fontaines D.C., Goo Goo Dolls and The Strokes take over the Surf Stage, while the Park Stage features Alice Phoebe Lou, flipturn, Ziggy Marley and Moby. On the Sand Stage, fans can catch Die Spitz, Kim Gordon and Pixies, among others.

One of the smartest ways to approach Sea.Hear.Now is to resist spending the entire weekend waiting for the largest names. Arrive early. Walk between stages. Give an artist you have never seen 15 minutes of your attention. Some of APV’s favorite festival memories have come from performances we did not initially expect to become highlights.

Create a list of your non-negotiable sets, but leave space for discovery. That flexibility is part of the festival.

Remember to Watch the Water

It is easy for the music lineup to dominate the conversation, but the surfing is not a side attraction. It is part of Sea.Hear.Now’s identity.

The North Beach Sessions surf contest returns with a field that includes Sam Hammer, Cassidy McClain, Cam Richards, Balaram Stack, Rob Kelly, Pat Schmidt, Mike Gleason, Audrey Iglay, Mia Gallagher and other accomplished surfers. The competition is built around the conditions Mother Nature provides, with the prize awarded for the wave of the day.

That unpredictability is exactly what makes it worth watching. The ocean does not operate according to the music schedule, so keep an eye on the water as you move between the Surf and Sand stages. Stop for a few minutes. Watch what is happening between the jetties. It is one of the elements that makes this festival impossible to duplicate in a parking lot or traditional festival field.

Take Time for the Art

Sea.Hear.Now also transforms the beachfront into an outdoor gallery.

Asbury Park artists Pork Chop and Brad Hoffer are returning with the festival’s jellyfish installation and surfboard arch. Stoke Henge will once again bring large-scale artwork to the area around Convention Hall, while photographer Bruce Chrisner will lead community mural projects involving contributors from throughout Asbury Park.

The Transparent Gallery will also return with artwork connected to participating musicians, pop-up performances and sales benefiting local Asbury Park charities.

Do not treat these installations as scenery you pass on the way to another stage. Walk through them. Look closely at the details. Learn the names of the artists. They help connect a nationally recognized festival to the creative community that exists in Asbury Park throughout the entire year.

Start the Day with Yoga

Sea.Hear.Now’s wellness programming provides a much quieter way to begin what will become a very loud day.

Free yoga sessions are scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. A festival ticket is not required, although participants will need to complete a waiver.

The sessions reflect another quality APV has always appreciated about the festival: it understands its location. Beginning the morning with movement, fresh air and the ocean before the gates open creates a completely different relationship with the day ahead.

Even people who are not attending the festival can participate, making the yoga sessions one of the weekend’s most accessible community experiences.

Respect the Beach You Came to Enjoy

A festival built around the ocean also carries a responsibility to protect it.

Sea.Hear.Now identifies itself as a 100 percent plastic-free event. Disposable plastic water bottles are prohibited, but guests may bring empty reusable aluminum water bottles, and free water refill stations are available inside the grounds.

That means preparation matters. Bring the reusable bottle. Use the correct waste and recycling containers. Do not leave cups, food containers, wristband pieces or other debris in the sand. Pay attention to the festival’s environmental messaging instead of walking past it.

The beach is not merely the location where Sea.Hear.Now happens. It is one of the festival’s central participants.

Know Before You Go

A little planning will make the weekend considerably easier.

Sea.Hear.Now is cashless, with credit cards, debit cards and mobile payments accepted throughout the festival. Guests may also connect an accepted payment method to their wristbands.

The bag policy is specific. Small clutch purses and fanny packs measuring 6 by 9 inches or smaller do not need to be clear, provided they have no more than one pocket. Larger permitted bags must be clear and cannot exceed 12 by 6 by 12 inches. Hydration packs are permitted under separate compartment and empty-liquid requirements.

Bring non-aerosol sunscreen in a container no larger than 3.4 ounces. Portable battery packs, empty reusable aluminum bottles and factory-sealed electrolyte packets are allowed. Chairs, umbrellas, coolers, outside food and beverages, professional camera equipment and plastic water bottles are prohibited. A no-blanket and no-towel zone will be enforced near the Surf Stage.

Guests may leave and re-enter after passing through security again, but the festival currently states that no re-entry will be permitted after 7 p.m.

Download the Sea.Hear.Now mobile app before arriving and save your preferred performances. Screenshots of the schedule are also useful when cell service becomes crowded.

Plan Your Arrival

Anyone who has attended a major event in Asbury Park knows that parking close to the beach can become difficult quickly.

NJ Transit provides rail access to Asbury Park, including service from New York. Metered parking is available around the city, but festival-specific transportation and parking information may continue to be updated as the weekend approaches.

The festival has two entrances: one at 7th Avenue and Kingsley Street and another at 4th Avenue and Ocean Avenue. Organizers note that the 7th Avenue entrance frequently has shorter waits.

Arriving early is not only about beating the traffic. It gives you time to enter without panic, refill your bottle, understand the layout and support the artists performing in the opening slots.

Wear shoes that can handle pavement, grass and sand. Bring a light layer for the evening, even if the afternoon is warm. Festival weather on the oceanfront can change quickly once the sun goes down.

Let the Festival Spill into the City

Sea.Hear.Now weekend should not begin and end at the festival gates.

The newly announced Kickoff on Cookman will take place Friday, September 18, from 5 to 9 p.m. along Cookman Avenue between Grand Avenue and Main Street. The event is free and open to all ages.

Additional late-night events include shows at The Stone Pony and Wonder Bar. Some have already sold out, while tickets remain available for select performances, including There Goes the Neighborhood at Wonder Bar on Friday and Makua on Saturday night.

Spend time downtown. Eat at a local restaurant. Stop in the shops. Walk the boardwalk. Visit a venue. Sea.Hear.Now brings enormous attention to Asbury Park, but the city’s music and creative culture exist long before the stages are built and continue long after they are taken down.

What Is the Current Ticket Situation?

Demand moved quickly when tickets were initially released. One-day General Admission, GA+, VIP and Platinum tickets are currently listed as sold out, with waitlist and verified resale options available.

As of August 4, the official festival site lists two-day General Admission passes starting at $309, although availability and prices can change. Two-day VIP is sold out, while certain higher-level packages remain available or have their own waitlists. Anyone purchasing after the initial sale should use the official festival ticket page or its authorized verified resale platform rather than buying from an unknown seller.

More Than a Weekend of Concerts

Sea.Hear.Now has welcomed an extraordinary list of artists to Asbury Park since its debut in 2018, but its lasting identity cannot be measured by headliners alone.

It is the sight of a band playing with the Atlantic Ocean behind it. It is a surfer catching a wave while music carries across the beach. It is morning yoga followed by an entire day of movement between stages. It is local artwork, community involvement, environmental awareness and the feeling that, for one weekend, every part of Asbury Park’s personality is being experienced at once.

That is why APV has continued covering Sea.Hear.Now from the beginning—and why it remains one of the festivals we love most.

Come prepared. Arrive curious. Watch more than the headliners. Respect the ocean and the city hosting you.

And somewhere between the music, the waves and the people surrounding you, take a moment to stop and absorb where you are.

That moment is what Sea.Hear.Now is really about.