Thousands of residents and visitors packed downtown Hackensack on October 3 for the seventh annual Hackensacktoberfest, a daylong mix of food, craft beer, live entertainment and shopping that organizers say showcased the city's people, businesses, flavors and character. The celebration stretched across Atlantic Street Park, Anderson Street Park, Banta Place, Demarest Place and the Courthouse Green before folding into Illumination 250, a regional cultural arts event marking America's 250th anniversary.
The festival was hosted by the Downtown Hackensack Main Street Business Alliance, according to TAPinto Hackensack. John T. Peters, the alliance's executive director, said Hackensacktoberfest is a day people look forward to each year, with thousands gathering downtown for food, music, local businesses and friends, per the same report.
A Day-Long Celebration Built Around America's 250th
Illumination 250 was held by the Hackensack Performing Arts Center as a day-long regional cultural arts celebration observing the nation's semiquincentennial, TAPinto Hackensack reported. The program brought performances along Main Street, interactive art installations and what organizers described as an immersive MP3 experiment, according to the outlet's recap.
The event was developed through a partnership that included HACPAC, the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation's ArtsBergen initiative, the Hackensack Main Street Business Alliance, Greater Bergen Community Action and the City of Hackensack. According to downtownhackensack.org, Illumination 250 was planned as a regional celebration of America's Semiquincentennial, with the day anchored by locations running from Atlantic Street Park to Anderson Street Park, Banta Place, Demarest Place and the Courthouse Green.
Light Projection Caps the Festivities on the Historic Green
Illumination 250 concluded with a light display at the historic Green, TAPinto Hackensack reported in its recap of the day. Downtownhackensack.org had outlined that Leni Schwendinger Light Projects was slated to create a large-scale digital projection there as the festival's finale, framing it as the capstone of the day's programming.
TAPinto Hackensack's recap also described Illumination 250 as the largest free public interactive festival in North Jersey. The event followed a $500,000 grant that the Hackensack Performing Arts Center received in March from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority's A.R.T. Phase II program, according to downtownhackensack.org, which noted HACPAC was one of 39 organizations to receive funding as part of the NJEDA's broader $15 million investment in arts and cultural programming.
Quilt Trail Keeps Part of the Celebration Going
Not everything wrapped up when the lights on the Green went dark. A quilt trail displayed at Anderson Street Park is set to remain on view through November 16, giving residents several more weeks to see one piece of the Illumination 250 programming, per TAPinto Hackensack's report.
