North to Shore Festival brings more entertainment to Atlantic City beyond the casinos

Starting Monday, the festival will provide America’s Favorite Playground with a diverse lineup of entertainment, including dance, poetry, music, live theater and DJ-driven dance parties.

The festival has been organized in a way that residents and visitors can decide whether to have a casinos-only experience, to take in independent artistic productions or to save a few dollars and just attend free performances, or to mix and match all three.

One of the highlights of the festival in the casinos will be the Grammy-nominated, American new wave band the B-52’s, who perform Saturday at Ocean Casino Resort.

Seeing the B-52’s live outside Las Vegas has become a rarity in recent years, as the band performed the final concert on its farewell tour in January 2023. The group is not touring anymore, said original member Kate Pierson, a vocalist and keyboardist.

“I’m really excited about the Las Vegas residency,” Pierson said. “It’s really awesome to stay in one place.”

The B-52’s self-titled debut 1979 album sold 1 million copies and contains the band’s first Hot 100 pop single, “Rock Lobster.”

“I still lived in Athens (Georgia). We go flying down to the Bahamas to record with Chris Blackwell,” said Pierson about the former record producer and founder of Island Records. “We recorded very simply. I played guitar on some songs. … When we heard it, we were so disappointed.”

The band members initially didn’t like the sparse sensibility Blackwell applied to the tracks that helped the songs stand up over time. The other original and current members of the band are vocalist Fred Schneider, vocalist Cindy Wilson and guitarist Keith Strickland, who no longer plays live with the group.

Pierson was surprised by the B-52’s success as a recording act.

“We had no expectations except to entertain ourselves and our friends,” said Pierson, who added the B-52’s followed their early gigs in Athens with live shows in New York City. “We played CBGB and Hurrah in New York City. We touched some kind of magic. … We never expected chart hits.”

The B-52’s were formed in Athens, but Pierson grew up in Rutherford, Bergen County, and graduated from Rutherford High School.

The night before the B-52’s entertain at Ocean, singer-songwriter Eric Roberson, 50, a native of Rahway, Union County, will perform on the same bill as Avery Sunshine during an R&B show Friday at Caesars Atlantic City.

Roberson is celebrating his 30th year as a professional recording artist, but besides his usual touring, he is doing little to celebrate it, except adding his first single, titled “The Moon,” to his live show.

Even though Roberson is a music business veteran, he is still receiving acclaim for his recent work.

At the Soul Tracks Readers’ Choice Awards, Roberson won male vocalist of the year and album of the year for “Lessons” in 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Roberson said he feels honored to be recognized for his work.

“I feel like I’m doing some of the best writing I have ever done,” Roberson said. “’Lessons,’ people are walking down the aisle to the song. … I should keep the pen moving.”

Roberson said he loves performing in his home state and entertaining in Atlantic City. He will sing with a nine-piece band accompanying him, and it is very much a possibility that he will sing one or more songs with Sunshine, who is a really close friend of his, before the night is over.

A visitor or resident who wants to experience live theater and have a non-casino experience can see the Atlantic City Theatre Company’s presentation of an original play, written by city resident Heidi Mae, titled “Last Hand: An AC Murder Mystery,” at 8 p.m. Friday in the Celebrity Theater at the Claridge Hotel.

“We’ve been in Atlantic City for five years. We have collected surveys and data. Murder mysteries are high on the list (of what people want to see). We’ve done them before,” said Jeremy Rotolo, the theater’s producing artistic director. “We hired a local playwright to write an original work that has never been seen or done before that is set in an Atlantic City casino.”

Even residents and visitors with little or no money can participate in North to Shore.

A Showcase Stage and Artist Village will be operational starting at 11 a.m. June 22 and 23 at the Orange Loop Festival Grounds on New York Avenue and feature singers, bands, dancers and DJs performing for free.

Alternative rockers The Break Plans from Freehold, Monmouth County, which formed in 2018, are excited to play in Atlantic City for the second time in their career, and it is a big milestone for the band, guitarist Mikey Strawz said.

“We are super stoked. I’ve always been fond of the area,” said Strawz, who is a 2008 graduate of the former Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. “I saw a lot of shows in Atlantic City. … It will be a fun time. We are honored.”