If you live in Somers Point, you already know the bay side of town gets busy on summer Fridays. What you might not have clocked is how tightly the 2026 calendar has packed the stretch between Higbee Avenue and Maryland Avenue. A free concert series that was named "Best in Nation" in the USA Today Top Ten Readers' Poll two of the last three years now sits inside a half-mile where three restaurants have changed hands or reopened since November. For a resident, that means one thing: your Friday routine this month can be built almost entirely on foot.
This post is a working plan for the rest of the season, not a roundup. The thesis is simple. Between the William Morrow Beach stage and the Bay Avenue/Maryland Avenue corner, Somers Point has quietly assembled the most concentrated Friday-night anchor on the mainland side of the bridges, and the August through mid-September window is when it pays off.
The Legacy Concerts on the Beach series will return this summer with 13 free performances featuring national headliners and regional favorites from June 12 through Sept. 11. The popular Friday night concert series, presented by Tony Mart Cares, has earned national recognition in recent years, including multiple top rankings in a USA Today readers poll.
What's actually left on the beach calendar
The series runs Fridays at 7 PM at the William Morrow Beach/Municipal Beach Park, located between Higbee and New Jersey Avenues on Bay Avenue in Somers Point. Six shows remain as of early August. The schedule below is what you're working with:
| Date | Headliner | The hook |
|---|---|---|
| Fri, Aug 7 | Glenn Burtnik with The Weeklings | Featuring Joe Bellia from Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes on drums |
| Fri, Aug 14 | Melody Trucks Band with The Fitzkee Brothers | Featuring Vaylor Trucks, family to Derek Trucks of Tedeschi Trucks Band and daughter/son of Allman Brothers founder Butch Trucks |
| Fri, Aug 21 | The Billy Walton Band | Jersey shore rock & soul guitar hero headlining a high-energy party and dance concert |
| Fri, Aug 28 | Deep Blue Something | The 90s alt-rock act performing their multi-million-selling hit "Breakfast at Tiffany's" |
| Fri, Sept 4 | The E Street Shuffle | A Bruce Springsteen tribute band delivering a full evening of music from The Boss |
| Fri, Sept 11 | Patty Balbo's "The Girls Can't Help It" | Closing the series with a tribute celebrating iconic women of rock |
Two things to flag if you've been to the series before. First, shows may be moved to an indoor venue in the event of bad weather, so a check of tonymart.com the day of a questionable forecast is worth the ten seconds. Second, a wheelchair-accessible area is located on the Higbee Avenue side of the beach near the stage, which is also, incidentally, the calmest place to park a beach chair with kids.
The half-mile that turned over this year
Here's what makes this season structurally different from last. Within a short walk of the stage, three of the restaurants you'd factor into a Friday plan are either new, newly reopened, or under active construction.
Pablo, on Maryland Avenue. Pablo is Zest Restaurant Group's newest concept, bringing their Cape May roots to Somers Point. The space was previously home to Mexiquila, and the group describes the new restaurant as an American–Mexican fusion concept focused on bold flavors, craft cocktails, and a lively, elevated atmosphere. The Zest name may be new to Somers Point, but if you go to Cape May you already know their work. Zest is the operator behind Taco Caballito Tequileria on Beach Avenue, Port Marina on Ocean Drive, and Fish House on Sunset Boulevard. The building has some history for long-timers: Pablo is located on Maryland Avenue in Somers Point, and long-time residents and visitors may remember the property as being Clancy's for years.
Smitty's Clam Bar, 910 Bay Avenue. The bay-side landmark reopened for the season on Thursday, May 7th at 4:30 p.m., per the restaurant's own announcement. The Somers Point landmark at 910 Bay Avenue is a no-frills waterfront spot that has been a must-visit during the summer for both locals and visitors. If you have been putting off a Friday visit because you assumed the wait would eat your concert start time, here's the useful detail: patrons routinely wait up to an hour to hear their name called and sit outside enjoying the atmosphere, with both indoor and outdoor seating available. Translation: put your name in at 5:15, walk the block, and you'll be eating before the first note.
Webster's Tavern, replacing the Windjammer. This one is a summer watch, not a summer plan. Somers Point City Council approved the Windjammer's liquor license transfer to Websters SP LLC on Nov. 13. The building was formerly a TGI Friday's and became The Windjammer on Oct. 11, 2011. Owner Steve Tiniakos retired and sold the property, which will now become Webster's Tavern, giving Somers Point a new spot for dinner, drinks, and a night out. According to a video posted by Shorn Construction, the new restaurant is expected to open by summer, with the design coming together and construction anticipated to begin near the beginning of February '26. Whether it lands in time for the Sept 11 finale is genuinely open. Worth a look every time you drive past.
The Point, still doing what it does. For a post-concert drink with the bay still in your sight line, the Somers Point location is the original birthplace of The Point, opened in 2019, and its tiki beach bar delivers live music, food, and drinks on the sand. It is the closest thing the mainland has to a walk-off nightcap.
A Friday routine that actually uses the geography
If you have been treating the concert as a standalone stop, you are underusing the block. Try the sequence below on any of the six remaining Fridays.
- 5:15 PM. Drop your name at Smitty's Clam Bar, 910 Bay Avenue. Confirm the quoted wait.
- 5:20 PM. Walk to the beach entrance between Higbee and New Jersey, drop chairs at the William Morrow stage line. Chairs hold the spot; nobody moves them.
- 5:35 PM. Back to Smitty's. If the wait is longer than expected, walk to Maryland Avenue and eat at Pablo instead. It's four minutes.
- 6:50 PM. Return to the chairs. First notes at 7:00 sharp.
- 9:15 PM or so, depending on the set. Walk to The Point for a drink on the sand. If it's a Billy Walton or Melody Trucks Friday, you will not be the only one with that idea, so plan for a wait or send one person ahead at the encore.
- All season. Drive past the old Windjammer on your way in. When the Webster's signage goes up, that changes the routine again.
Why the shoulder shows matter more than they look
Most concert coverage treats the June opener as the headline. For a resident, the shoulder is where the series earns its keep. The concert series runs from June 12 through Sept. 11, which means two of the thirteen shows land after Labor Day, when the crowd on the beach has thinned by roughly the amount you'd expect from a shore town in September but the bands haven't. The Sept 4 Springsteen tribute and the Sept 11 finale are, in practical terms, the easiest nights of the whole series to actually enjoy: parking loosens, the wait at Smitty's drops, and the sunset comes earlier so the stage lights read better. If you have only ever gone in July, try a September Friday this year.
The subtler point is what this cluster tells you about where the town is investing. A liquor license transferred in November, a national restaurant group planting a flag on Maryland Avenue in the spring, a landmark clam bar re-committing to its bay-side footprint, and a free concert series that keeps ranking nationally, all within a five-minute walk. That is not a coincidence of timing. That is a corner of Somers Point that expects to be worth showing up for on a Friday, and it's built for the people already here.
If you love this stretch and are ever thinking about what living closer to it looks like, or if you're considering what your current place would trade for in this pocket of town, the team at Cheryl Huber knows the Somers Point blocks between the bridges and the bay by name. Bring the questions. We'll bring the local read.
