Words: Kelley Lauginiger | Photos Kim Wessels
Most music festivals are built around a common denominator: genre, scene, one band’s legacy, or even a particular moment in history like anniversaries, New Year’s Eve, or, after months of searching, finally finding the perfect Woodstock venue at a dairy farm in upstate New York. Others encapsulate a time period, like a display of the culture, or a soundtrack of the generation.
On paper, the Sea Hear Now 2026 lineup seemed like a potpourri of artists from wildly different corners of the musical universe: Men at Work, Pixies, Mumford & Sons, Ziggy Marley, Shaggy, Moby, Chaka Khan, Kim Gordon. While all insanely talented, what was the vision bringing these acts together on a festival bill? What do these acts all have in common?
Going into the weekend, this was an incessant curiosity. The Strokes. Susanna Hoffs. Die Spitz. Flipturn. What was this going to be like?
During the opening riff of The Offspring’s “Bad Habit,” it became pretty clear what was happening. This was a time portal. A memory machine.
When Dexter Holland screamed, “Hey, man, you know, I’m really okayyyyyy…” over that nasty rock guitar riff, it was suddenly 1994 again. Fifth-grade unfinished basement. Pool table. Somebody’s older brother’s Offspring CD. And the very strong belief that having that CD made everyone in the room extremely cool. Rebellious. Eleven.
That is what music does. One riff and suddenly 30 years disappear. You remember the room, the people, the feeling, and exactly who you were when you first heard it.
You remember who you used to be.
People talk about being nostalgic for a place that doesn’t exist anymore. But maybe that place does still exist. Maybe it’s just hiding inside the right song.
This is the visionary Sea Hear Now lineup creation in action. Not random, despite first glance. Like Magic Eye, it may not reveal itself until immersion, but when inside the experience it’s obvious why everyone was there: to remember the better times and make new memories, holding space for that attitude and that person to thrive.
Standing on the beach with thousands of people singing along, it became pretty obvious why everyone was there.
Sunday’s “Iris” singalong at The Goo Goo Dolls spanned the entire beach and could be heard for miles. Women linked arm in arm, doing can-can line kicks to “I’m Every Woman” during Chaka Khan. And during Mumford & Sons, hundreds of loved ones grabbed each other closely, looking for emotional solace between the “heys” and the “ho’s.” Bubbles floated over Ziggy Marley’s cover of Bob’s “One Love” with smiling backup dancers and a crowd singalong stretching from the Park Stage (where Asbury Park usually plays kickball on Tuesdays) all the way back to the boardwalk. All 35,000 attendees might have been singing together to that one.
That is the power of music. It’s not to be harnessed, but we can ride the wave together. Maybe appropriately so at Sea Hear Now, we can even ride the wave next to the ocean.
The festival’s art and merch were adorned with love for the sea. Like a beacon light, a large anglerfish sculpture on the beach invited festival-goers into the Danny Clinch Transparent Gallery tent. Inside the bigtop tent setup, folks perused signed drum heads, photos of Clinch subjects including Bruce Springsteen, Trey Anastasio, Courtney Barnett, and lots more, among branded band name surfboards and other trinkets for sale and to be appreciated by attendees. Some lucky timed visitors even caught pop-up sets from All-American Rejects and the Goo Goo Dolls.
Considering Asbury Park has a 15,000 population, with a portion of that population only living there during summer, the daily 35,000 influx could have created chaos and mayhem. Back to the visionary planning, it’s not lost on festival workers how much thought went into this design. Everything was considered: how long between stages, food for every diet, free water in VIP, the kindest concierge team across the fest who knew the layout from the time it opened up, to the specific way the stages didn’t cross-contaminate each other’s music while being within ear-reach. The planning was tea, as the kids say.
In hindsight, the collective vision and planning, while making it seem easy to attendees, felt a lot like a nod to festivals like All Good in early 2000s, the first North Coasts and LOCKN in the 2010s and into the 2020s. With this in mind, it’s likely that the Sea Hear Now planners were inspired by the same festivals, and perhaps, all fall in the same age ranges to have experienced those in their youth.
For elder millennials and Gen-X, many of the touchstone musical experiences that shaped generations are gone. The venues have changed (besides the Stone Pony — shoutout for that), radio stations have disappeared, Virgin Records definitely doesn’t have those CD-listening stations that changed our lives anymore (but those ripped), AI has replaced someone named Bingo making cool lot art. Friends who introduced new records and ideas have moved or passed away.
Not to be depressing, but this is literally just life. The passage of time may be inevitable, but perhaps people don’t have to be nostalgic for a time that doesn’t exist anymore. Instead, for a short weekend at the end of summer on the Jersey Shore, maybe it can be resurrected through a portal of musical memories, cracked open by the youthful vulnerability of being open to surprise.
Mumford & Sons delivered a set of truly layered compositions, robust with a full band and horns. Their lyrics were poignant, and the crowd was mesmerized by lead singer Marcus Mumford. When he took the drums and sang, it was clear that this band (for the uninformed) is a lot more than the saccharine, even corny, reputation they’re often credited with. Their ability to connect with the fans was unmatched, as people sang every word through tears and dancing. It was truly beautiful to witness along the beach, dotted with couples and parents hugging their children — remembering what matters in life.
Sometimes music can help us remember what we didn’t mean to forget.
Steph Strings was perfectly suited to start Saturday in the sunshine, with her smile and guitar lighting up the place. All the way from Australia, Strings was one of a handful of world travelers to the fest, including Shaggy (Jamaica), Fontaines DC (Scotland), Mumford (UK), and Makua (Hawaii – USA, but still a journey). For a two-day festival, this added to the flavor of participation, with headlining band The Strokes saying how much they loved seeing Fontaines DC play. Art begets art, and getting these musicians together is inspirational, even for one another. Kudos to the Sea Hear Now for putting this vision into action.
The Queen of Funk, Chaka Khan, performed the set of the weekend spanning hits from Rufus through her modern solo career. From the tiniest frame came the most powerful voice, and she made it look effortless. That’s some raw talent right there. There are billions of people in this world, but there will only ever be one Chaka Khan. That’s a fact. Her guitarist, Jon Dretto, left mouths agape during his solos, leaving a lingering feeling of a young Prince that is almost impossible to attain — not that he was trying to, but it would make sense if he’s a fan. His stage presence and musical conversation with Chaka felt like they’d been in the same band for 60 years, even though he joined in 2025. We’re all glad they’ve found each other, because WOW. Like a spectacular in the finale of a circus, Chaka’s band played so many instruments in such a short time that it was impossible to know who to focus on. At times, it was the chaos of Sun Ra but also a composition, and everyone knew the words. Mouthpieces and melodicas abound; this performance knocked it out of the park.
Later on Saturday, Shaggy taught everyone about reggae and dancehall music, amid rapid-fire hits and bangers familiar to the masses. Not only was the set full of high energy and good vibes, it was full of positivity and respect for women, which was not the case for All-American Rejects and that’s all that needs to be said about that.
At one point, Shaggy explained to the crowd that he doesn’t leave Jamaica for the weather. He said he wanted to come see what it was like on the beach in Asbury Park, and to get everyone hyped up he said, “I’m putting yall on YouTube.” He held up his phone in selfie-mode to the crowd and the place went OFF! As it turns out, Shaggy is one of the top Jamaican artists on YouTube. He was a marine in the Gulf War, serving as a Lance Corporal, where he perfected the voice listeners know today. For his outstanding contribution to the music industry, both locally and internationally, Orville “Shaggy” Burrell was awarded Jamaica’s Order of Distinction in the Rank of Commander (CD). This is similar in nature to being knighted in the UK, though it is obviously a different institution and set of qualifications — but they can be considered similar.
It’s important to realize everyone has dualities and that Shaggy is more than “It Wasn’t Me,” his biggest hit. However, singing “Banging on the bathroom floor” with 35,000 in a sing-a-long wasn’t on my 2026 Bingo card, so the entire show brought an element of surprise. “Mr. Boombastic,” “Angel,” “Sexy Lady,” and snippets from Shaggy’s album with Sting were featured on the scrolling video screen. This medley of all-things-Shaggy was packed for just one hour, and another reason to be open-minded. If Shaggy has an album with Sting, anything is possible, in the best ways.
A few non-booths that offered a lot of engagement and community support were the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, HeadCount, and Rock and Recycle. At Rock and Recycle, festivalgoers could collect a bag of trash and trade it in for a prize, which many youngsters were excited to take part in with their parents as a fun activity. It was great to see kids getting involved in environmental services, and their parents encouraging it. Everyone helped the kids in the crowd when they saw them coming by giving their empties or something from the ground nearby. It was heartwarming to see what matters on display with great music as the soundtrack.
The Strokes were off. The band was great, but Julian Casablancas is not ready to be back in the spotlight on the mic. He didn’t seem like he wanted to be there, and he was talking a lot between songs about stuff that wasn’t really landing. The crowd didn’t like it, and neither did the band. At one point, Casablancas shouted out the Stone Pony years, and as he began to wax poetic to “F-around before the song,” the band cut him off and went into a tune. As a huge Strokes fan, the songs from Is This It were nostalgic, but it felt like the band needed a serious huddle. It’s not that it was a bad set, but it just felt off. “Last Nite” closed the festival with huge excitement in the rain; people were shirtless, swinging their shirts around and skanking in the sand – the way Gaia intended.
Local bands Status Green and the Ocean Avenue Stompers reigned supreme, rain or shine. The Stompers kept the party going between stages and on the boardwalk, playing for the attendees in and around the boardwalk Convention Center.
Ocean Avenue Stompers’ Ryan Gregg said he was “Very grateful to experience this festival year after year with the Stompers. Great hangs even marching through the rain. I love seeing so many familiar faces mixed into the crowd and the festival itself, from the crew to the acts and the attendees, and so many friends coming out to hang every year.”
Sea Hear Now feels like being handed a treasure map to a place you no longer thought was accessible. Even though it was my first one, I already can’t wait till next year.
Saturday Galleries:
Sunday Galleries:
