OCEAN CITY — There’s a particular kind of magic to a shore town in October that the July crowds never get to see. The lines are gone. The parking is free. And on Saturday, nine blocks of Asbury Avenue will fill up with the people who were here before the tourists and will be here long after — the locals, the crafters, the bands, the kids on pony rides who don’t have to wait forty-five minutes for the privilege.
The Ocean City Fall Block Party runs 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Asbury Avenue from Fifth to 14th Street, and it is exactly the kind of event that reminds you why people fall in love with these towns in the first place. More than 400 crafters, food vendors and entertainers set up shop down the spine of downtown. From 11 to 4 the music drifts between street corners — the Robert Boney Band holding down Seventh Street, the Pennsport String Band bringing that unmistakable Philadelphia sound to 13th, Big Daddy anchoring 14th. On the grounds of the Ocean City Tabernacle at Sixth and Asbury, there are pony rides for the little ones, also 11 to 4.
Free parking and three days of deals
Here’s the part the summer people never learn: parking is free Saturday at every municipal lot and metered space in town, and the downtown and Boardwalk merchants are running Discount Days right through Monday, with deals stretching from Sixth to 14th. You can spend a whole Saturday there and not spend a fortune. Try doing that in August.
I’ve always thought you learn the truest version of a place in its off-season. In July, Ocean City performs for strangers. In October, it just gets to be itself — a little quieter, a little kinder, the salt air sharper, the light slanting gold across storefronts that have been serving the same families for generations. The food vendors and the Asbury Avenue restaurants trade customers all day, and nobody’s in a rush.
In July, Ocean City performs for strangers.Max Cedar
Then point the car south
If you want to make a weekend of it, point the car south afterward. Cape May is in the middle of its Victorian Weekend, Friday through Monday, and that town does autumn like nowhere else on the Eastern Seaboard. There are historic house tours, trolley rides, a vintage baseball game on Saturday played by old-timey rules, and a crafts show Sunday. Walk those gingerbread-trimmed streets with a cup of coffee in the morning chill and tell me the shore is only a summer place.
It isn’t. It never was. The boardwalk fries taste the same in October, the ocean is still doing the thing it’s always done, and for a few golden weeks the whole stretch of coast belongs to the people who love it most. That’s us. Go claim your share this weekend.
Based on reporting from PhillyVoice, the City of Ocean City and Cape May tourism listings.