Things To Do

Grand Harvest Wine & Music Festival at Rutherfurd Hall

Festival

Sept 30: The Grand Harvest Wine & Music Festival is a perfect fall day trip. Enjoy live music, craft vendors and plentiful drinks on the scenic historic grounds of Rutherfurd Hall. 

Red Bank Guinness Oyster Festival

Festival

Sept 30: Inspired by the Galway Oyster Festival in Ireland, this seafood party offers brews and wine, fried and raw oysters, filet mignon sandwiches, lobster rolls and mini Reubens. Jam out to live music. Vendors and children’s activities offer more fun. The after-party begins at 7 pm at the Dublin House.

Chowderfest Weekend

Festival

Sept 29-30: You’ll be happy as a clam as you bargain hunt at the Merchant Mart on Saturday. Restaurants compete for best New England, Manhattan and seafood chowders on Sunday during the Chowder Cook Off Classic.

Sunflower Festival at Holland Ridge Farms

Festival

Sept 22-Oct 28: Wander through more than 50 acres of radiant blooms during the Sunflower Festival at Holland Ridge Farms. Twenty local artists will create live paintings of the sunflowers for purchase. Hop on a hayride, meander through the corn maze, cut your own sunflowers, and pick your own pumpkins.

New Jersey Film Festival Fall 2018

Festival

Sept 14-Oct 25: The 36th biannual festival promises more than 30 film screenings, including 23 area premieres. Various times and locations on the Rutgers University campus, New Brunswick. 

Mount Tabor House Tour

Festival

Sept 29: Feel like you’re stepping inside actual gingerbread houses on this self-guided tour of more than 15 Victorian cottages and historic buildings in this Morris County enclave. 

Peters Valley Craft Fair

Family

Sept 29-30: More than 150 artists set up shop for a day of demonstrations and sales hosted by Peters Valley School of Craft.

5th Annual Morristown Festival of Books

Family

Oct 12-13: Hear from more than 50 authors, including Pulitzer Prize-winners Gregory Pardlo and Gilbert King, at the Morristown Festival of Books. Friday night’s keynote speaker is former Secretary of State John Kerry.

Six Flags Great Adventure Fright Fest New Attractions

Family

Sept 15-Oct 31: Six Flags Great Adventure will debut its biggest and scariest Fright Fest® in park history this fall. The Northeast’s Largest Halloween party runs weekends and select days September 15 through October 31 featuring more than 25 Halloween-themed shows and attractions, including the terrifying Hell Fest maze.

Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience at Prudential Center

Music

Sept 26: The Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience takes fans of the Emmy-winning HBO hit through the Seven Kingdoms. Series composer Ramin Djawadi leads musicians and performers in this immersive, theatrical show. The eighth and final season premieres in 2019.

George Street Playhouse Presents: “The Trial of Donna Caine”

Theater

Oct 16-Nov 11: When Marine Staff Sergeant Donna Caine is accused of a serious crime, highly respected attorney Emily Zola Ginsberg is convinced to take the case. Ginsberg finds herself taking on the military establishment in order to expose the truth in this riveting courtroom drama inspired by true events.

Hopewell Theater Celebrates One-Year Anniversary with Paul Muldoon

Arts

Since the Hopewell Theater opened in Sept. 2018, it has brought over 200 eclectic programs to the Mercer County area. The theater will be celebrating its first anniversary on Sept. 8 with Paul Muldoon and Rogue Oliphant.

Paper Mill Playhouse Presents: “The Color Purple”

Theater

Sept 26-Oct 21: Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel and Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated film The Color Purple is retold on stage. This moving musical chronicles the life of Celie, an oppressed African-American woman living in early-20th-century Georgia. 

Joan Baez at the Count Basie Center for the Arts

Music

Sept 25: At 77, Joan Baez, one of the most compelling and enduring voices to emerge from the 1960s folk-music scene, is embarking on her final Fare Thee Well tour. As an activist, she has participated in demonstrations with Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez and Nelson Mandela.

Pamela’s First Musical at Two River Theater

Theater

The musical tells the story of Pamela (played by 12-year-old Sarah McKinley Austin), an unhappy, imaginative young girl whose mother has died. Her father (two-time Tony Award nominee Howard McGillin), though well-meaning, doesn’t fully understand his creative, unusual daughter.

Herb & Milly Iris Gallery Presents: “Decades of Dance” by Patricia Hutchinson at SOPAC

Arts

Thru Nov 23: The Herb & Milly Iris Gallery hosts a new exhibit, Decades of Dance, from New Jersey artist Patricia Hutchinson. This collection features paintings that capture the grace and beauty of dancers’ bodies in motion.

Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit at Morris Museum: “Things Come Apart”

Arts

Thru Dec 2: Things Come Apart, a traveling exhibition circulated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) and featuring the works of creative photographer and tinkerer Todd McLellan, looks inside the smartphone and dozens of other everyday technologies.

Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton Presents: “Walter Chandoha” Exhibit

Arts

Sept 23-Jan 6: The exhibit “Walter Chandoha” focuses on the photographer’s seven decades of work. Chandoha is best known for his cat photography, but this exhibition will also feature his New York street scenes from the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Visual Arts Center of New Jersey Presents: “Kevin Blythe Sampson: Black and Blue”

Arts

Sept 28-Jan 27: The exhibit “Kevin Blythe Sampson: Black and Blue” incorporates drawings, a site-specific mural, and porcelain sculptures responding to the Blue and Black Lives Matter movements from his perspective as a retired African-American police officer.

Zimmerli Art Museum Presents: “The Art of Turning Pages: Illustrations by Lulu Delacre for Sonia Sotomayor’s Life Story”

Arts

Sept 15-March 17: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s children’s book, Turning Pages: My Life Story, will be published this month. The exhibit, “The Art of Turning Pages: Illustrations by Lulu Delacre for Sonia Sotomayor’s Life Story,” shows the illustration process. Delacre will speak at the museum on Oct 2.

The Atlantic Highlands Arts Council Presents: “Art that Binds”

Arts

For the first time ever, the Atlantic Highlands Arts Council will be presenting a showcase of book arts. Featuring the works of eight different artists, the exhibit will highlight various interpretations of the “book arts” genre.

Princeton University Art Museum Presents: “Picturing Protest”

Thru Oct 14: The exhibit “Picturing Protest” examines political demonstrations during the ’60s and ’70s around the country and on Princeton’s campus through historical photographs.