Come see Texas blues-band The Fabulous Thunderbirds in Clark this Saturday September 14. The six-hour Union County Fall Festival is free. Plus, The Weight Band will perform the music of The Band and Dead On Live will be Grateful.

The free “Heart Of The City” festival returns to Rahway in Union County for the fourth time on August 3 at noon for six hours right on the corner of Irving and East Cherry Streets. Venders and artists will showcase their wares. There will be local music talent, a live DJ, and an interactive art installation that allows festival-goers a photo-shoot moment.

Wednesday to Sunday, the 24th to the 28th of July. The Hoboken Historical Museum will present a 16-photo pictorial of the event called “On The Steps of St. Ann’s: A Collection of Photographs from The Feast 2001-2022 by Bob Delavante” that will run from Sunday of this weekend to August 25.

The Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel will present their annual slate of free shows starting September. The series is presented by The Garden State Arts Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1984.

Circle the date. Montclair has proclaimed September 14 as the FREE 2024 Downtown Jamboree wherein eight solid hours of great music from noon to 8:00 p.m. will be performed in the street on Bloomfield Avenue between Grove Street and Midland Avenue (the area will be roped off to cars). Retailers and restaurant storefronts will remain open.

On Saturday, August 24, at 1:00 p.m., the FREE annual Long Branch Jazz & Blues Festival will start making noise for eight hours. It’s on The Great Lawn Promenade—Boardwalk at 10 Ocean Blvd.—and is presented by The Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation. Food trucks, vendors, activities for the kids, crafters.

“Horizon Sounds of the City” is returning for another season of FREE shows in Newark’s Chambers Park on the NJPAC grounds and this year, the lineup is energetic and filled with percolating percussion. Each night should be a funkin’ good time with emphasis on World Music. Shows begin at 6:00 p.m.

This Sunday, May 19, the FREE bi-annual Hoboken Arts & Music Festival will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Washington Street between Observer Highway and Seventh Street with over 300 artists, crafters, food vendors, dance troupes, DJs and live bands.

Memorial Park in Maplewood of Essex County will turn into the annual event known as Maplewoodstock again for the 20th time on July 13 and 14. This event is FREE. Complete with food venders, a beer garden and a “Kid Zone,” the schedule provides a multi-genre experience for every taste.

Summer just got louder. The Camden County 2024 Summer Parks Concert Series has been announced with concerts in three locations. The “Sunset Jazz Series” at the Camden Waterfront’s Roland Traynor River Stage will present shows every Monday at 8:00 p.m. starting June 3 with singer-songwriter-bassist Esperanza Spalding.

What other town hosts an all-summer FREE concert series? You’ve got to hand it to Woodbridge (“A Community Committed To The Arts”) and Mayor John E. McCormac. From oldies, country and classic rock to folk, jazz, Americana and worldbeat, you’ll hear it all this summer at various locations in town every Sunday through Thursday starting June 12.

Held in the historic Forest Hill section, the 2023 Newark Porch Fest will take place on Saturday September 23 (with a rain-date the following day) with live music, art, dance, food and kid-stuff. The fun takes place, indeed, on neighborhood front porches, stoops and lawns.

On August 26, The National R&B Music Society, in conjunction with the town of Atlantic City, will present FOR FREE After 7, Ray Goodman and Brown, Keith Washington, Black Ivory, Dennis Taylor and The Legendary Blue Notes featuring Sugar Bear.

Morristown swings! Outdoors! For Free! On September 22 and 23, in the downtown Morristown Green, and across the street at Pioneer’s Plaza, Louis Prima, Jr. & The Witnesses will cover such classic songs by his father, the legendary Louie Prima [1910-1978] as “Sing Sing Sing,” “Jump Jive & Wail,” “Just A Gigolo” and “Angelina The Waitress At The Pizzeria.”

Three nights a week. Every week of the summer. Outdoors. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays will be filled with free music. The Wednesday series, besides listed acts, will have opening sets by bands from the Lakehouse Music Academy. The Thursday series, featuring the Asbury Park Concert Band, in its 78th season, will perform all summer at 7:00 in the Fifth Avenue Pavilion’s bandshell.

The Camden County FREE 2023 Summer Parks Concert Series will inhabit 2,700+ acres of total greenery at Wiggins Waterfront Park in Camden, the McLaughlin Norcross Memorial Dell at Haddon Lake Park in Haddon Heights and Cooper River Park in Pennsauken, all with nationally known acts.

We have to hand it to Woodbridge Mayor John E. McCormac for instituting the best annual tradition ever in Middlesex County. How about five-nights-a-week of free concerts starting June 3 and continuing all the way to September 20. Unheard of!

Free shows are rare. But the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel will be presenting British Invasion act Herman’s Hermits and Tommy Roe on June 8. The Soundtrack of Our Lives with Deborah Rennard and Al Sapienza will open. Legendary disc jockey Cousin Brucie will host.