Summer Beach Jam • Saturday, August 8, 2026
A free Saturday night of horns, groove and dance-floor energy right on Newport Avenue Beach — no ticket required, just sand, sunset and a reason to move.
Image: Ventnor Business Association, visitventnor.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/summer-concert.jpg
By Saturday evening, the sand at Newport Avenue Beach will already be doing its usual disappearing act under a spread of beach chairs and blankets. Food vendors will be working the line by 5:30. And somewhere around 6:30, as the ocean starts catching that late-day light, the East Coast Funk Band will kick into a horn line and the whole beach will shift from “relaxing” to “dancing” without much warning at all.
This week’s Summer Beach Jam brings back a band Ventnor crowds already know. East Coast Funk Band played this same stretch of sand last August, and they’re back for another round — a full night of funk, soul, disco and R&B built specifically to keep a beach crowd on its feet.
East Coast Funk Band at Summer Beach Jam
Date: Saturday, August 8, 2026
Vendors Open: 5:30 p.m.
Live Music: 6:30 p.m.
Genre: Funk, soul, disco & R&B party band
Location: Newport Avenue Beach, S. Newport Avenue Band Stage (Boardwalk)
Admission: Free
What to Bring: Beach chairs or blankets
Who Can Attend: Family-friendly, all ages welcome
Two Series, Two Very Different Nights
Ventnor runs its free summer concert calendar under two banners, and they genuinely feel like different events. Summer Beach Jam takes over Newport Avenue Beach on Saturdays, right at the edge of the Atlantic — a bring-your-chair, dig-your-feet-into-the-sand kind of night with the waves as the backdrop and the boardwalk band stage doing the heavy lifting. Sunset at Ski Beach runs on Wednesdays over on the bay side of Ventnor Heights, a calmer, lawn-and-sunset atmosphere at Dorset and Burk Avenues. Both are free, both open with food and craft vendors at 5:30 p.m., and both start music at 6:30 — but where Ski Beach tends to draw a slower, settle-in-for-sunset crowd, Newport Avenue Beach is where Ventnor goes to actually dance.
Saturday’s show fits that description exactly. This isn’t a lawn-chair-and-quiet-conversation kind of set — it’s the one night this stretch of the calendar is built for movement.
Who’s Playing: East Coast Funk Band
East Coast Funk Band is a South Jersey party band built around exactly what the name promises — funk, soul, disco and R&B, played by a group of musicians with decades of combined experience on regional stages. The band works the same circuit of South Jersey clubs, restaurants and outdoor events that produces a lot of the Shore’s best party bands — rooms like Josie Kelly’s Public House in Somers Point and Killarney’s Publik House in Hamilton Township are regular stops — and their whole pitch is simple: old-school funk and disco energy updated for a modern dance floor.
This isn’t East Coast Funk Band’s first trip to Ventnor, either. They played this same Newport Avenue Beach stage last summer, so Saturday is less of an introduction and more of a return engagement for a band that already knows how to get a Ventnor crowd moving.
Some Saturdays on Newport Avenue are for settling in. This one’s for getting up.
Why Funk Works So Well on This Beach
There’s a reason the Summer Beach Jam lineup consistently leans on party bands, funk acts and horn sections rather than quieter, more contemplative music: Newport Avenue Beach is a crowd venue. The stage sits right on the boardwalk with the ocean as a backdrop, and by 6:30 on a Saturday there’s a real crowd spread across the sand — families, groups of friends, kids who’ve been in the water all day and aren’t interested in sitting still. Horn-driven funk and disco are built for exactly that kind of room. It’s music that doesn’t ask you to listen quietly — it asks you to get up.
Pair that with a warm August evening and a shoreline setting, and the whole night tends to turn into one of the more high-energy stops on the summer calendar — less about the sunset, more about the dance floor that happens to be made of sand.
What to Bring
Newport Avenue Beach nights are casual and low-maintenance — a little prep goes a long way toward a comfortable evening.
- A beach chair or blanket — this is sand seating, not bleachers
- A light layer for after sunset, once the ocean breeze picks up
- Cash or a card for the vendors on-site
- Water, especially if you’re arriving while it’s still warm out
- Comfortable shoes — you’ll want them free for dancing
Arriving by 5:30 gives you first pick of vendors and the best real estate on the sand before the crowd fills in for the 6:30 start.
Weather Update: The current forecast for Saturday, August 8 is calling for mostly sunny skies and only a slight chance of rain — about as good as beach-concert weather gets. As always with an outdoor event, guests should check Visit Ventnor and Ventnor City Special Events for any last-minute updates before heading out.
See You on the Sand
Free, family-friendly, and built for dancing — Saturday’s Summer Beach Jam is the kind of night that turns a normal August evening into one people talk about for the rest of the week. Bring your chair, get there early, and let East Coast Funk Band handle the rest.
Bring a chair, arrive early, and meet Ventnor on the sand.
Summer Beach Jam • Saturday, August 8 • 6:30 p.m. • Free
Newport Avenue Beach, S. Newport Avenue Band Stage
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