The New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark (NJPAC) has announced this year’s lineup for the 15^th annual TD James Moody Jazz Festival Nov. 6-22. Highlights include tributes to Miles Davis, Zakir Hussain and James Moody [1925-2010}, the bebop sax man who was raised in Newark. Anticipation is also running high for a rare appearance by Tony Award winner Ben Vereen.

Rarely does one get to experience the grandeur, the majesty and the might of the New Jersey Symphony but to get to digest it for free? Better head on out to Newark tomorrow night, June 26, in Branch Brook Park.

The Communications Coordinator for Middlesex County Government, Zakiya Jones, reached out to tell us about their third annual four-hour FREE Folk Live Gospel Music Festival, Saturday, July 25, downtown New Brunswick, at 2 Livingston Avenue, starting at 3:30 p.m., outside the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC), with headliners The Group Fire out of Newark (consisting of two sets of brothers who blend jazz, spirituals and rhythm’n’blues, which they call rhythm’n’church) plus Grammy Award-winning artists Erica Campbell/Jonathan McReynolds.

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) will again present its annual “Horizon Sounds of the City” FREE concert series at Chambers Plaza right outside the NJPAC building.

The Bradley Beach Tourism Commission has been presenting its FREE weekly “Songwriters On The Beach” series since 2005 as produced by Brookdale Public Radio 90.5 The Night. All shows start at 7:00 p.m. on the Newark Avenue Beach.

There’s only one state in the U.S. that does not have a state song. Ironically, it is New Jersey, a state filled with music and musicians. We have been given permission to post Richard Lee’s strong argument—published in the prestigious journal American Music Perspectives in 2004 and updated by Lee last month—why the time is right for “Born To Run” by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band to, indeed, be The State Song Of New Jersey.

For the 22^nd year, Maplewoodstock will provide free music—rain or shine—July 11 and 12 in Essex County at Memorial Park, Maplewood, at 580 Valley Street.

The New Jersey Jazz Society continues “The Jazz Series” at Our Lady of Consolation Church on 1799 Hamburg Turnpike in Wayne, in partnership with the Wayne Public Library, on a Sunday afternoon, May 17, at 4:00, with The Ted Chubb Quintet—Ted Chubb, trumpet; Bruce Williams, alto sax; Oscar Perez, piano; Tom DiCarlo, bass, Jerome Jennings, drums.

The Camden County Board of Commissioners has announced the return of free “Summer Parks Concert Series 2026” on 2,700 acres of parklands.

International Jazz Day isn’t until April 30 but within the New Jersey Performing Arts Center downtown Newark—at the intimate Victoria Theater—a free April 26 Sunday afternoon jazz concert at 4:00 p.m. will feature over 100 young musicians from the NJPAC TD Jazz for Teens Moody Jazz Orchestra, George Wein’s Scholars Ensemble, Montclair’s Jazz House Kids, Riverdale Country School (Bronx, NY) and Pennsylvania’s Valley Jazz Orchestra.

The free 2026 Spring Arts and Music Festival will take place on Washington Street between Observer Highway and Seventh Street May 17 (rain date: May 31) in Hoboken from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with over 300 vendors and two stages of live music. Over 30,000 visitors are expected.

For seven hours September 28 starting at 11:00, the annual free Hoboken Fall Arts & Music Festival will take place between Observer Highway and Seventh Street.

The Nimbus Arts Center, at 329 Warren Street in Jersey City, is the site for the FREE Hudson West Fest on September 13. It’s an all-day groove to the sounds of Americana, Jazz, Folk, Country, Pop, Rock and even family square dancing.

Free concerts have been going on at the PNC Bank Arts Center right off the Garden State Parkway in Holmdel for a few years. The Garden State Arts Foundation has now announced its fall free shows.

A free all-day fest in Jersey City with bands and beer takes place this Sunday, August 24, starting at 1:00. The Eartheart Festival is dedicated to the proposition that a well-balanced symbiosis between brain and body makes all the difference in the world.

For four hours on Friday, September 19, starting at 5:00 p.m. and eight hours on Saturday, September 20, starting at 1:00 p.m., Freedom Park on Union Street in Medford (Burlington County) will ring long and strong FOR FREE with three stages of live music featuring Remember Jones, Williams Honor, Nik Greeley & the Operators and the champions of the Philadelphia Mummers Parade, the Quaker City String Band. 

The Into The Pines Music, Arts and Culture Festival takes over the New Jersey Pine Barrons in Hammonton (Atlantic County) on Paradise Drive for three days next week August 21, 22 & 23. South Jersey fest promoter John Facchinei has been running fests for over two decades. Dude has a great ear for talent before they explode. The pet-friendly event—with kids under 14 free—has discounts for military and seniors.

The third annual Middlesex County FREE Jazz Festival will take place September 24 to 28 in four towns. It kicks off in in Parker Press Park on Rahway Avenue in Woodbridge September 24 at 7:00 p.m. with the Woodbridge High School Jazz Choir under the direction of Lisa Romero before Brass Queens will undoubtedly blow everybody away at 7:30 for an hour.

The oldest settlement in Atlantic County down the shore is Somers Point, settled by Europeans in 1693. For the last 31 years, the Annual Somers Point Beach Concert Series has been free at the William Morrow Beach in Municipal Beach Park on Bay Avenue between Higbee and New Jersey Avenues.

The lineup for the FREE 2025 Essex County Summer Music Concert Series has been announced. It includes three nights of fireworks, five concerts in Brookdale Park and 14 concerts in various locations. And it all starts tomorrow!