A closer look at the sponsor websites show a disturbingly low amount of coverage for the upcoming festival, which is just over three weeks away. This, unfortunately, corresponds somewhat with the lack of media coverage for the event. Many writers have contacted me recently to see if I had received any press releases or had any news about the festival because they had not received anything. Press releases were finally received last week. I even know some writers who decided against doing stories because they were disappointed at the way it was handled.
Major festivals generally have advertising and media coverage saturated by this point in time. Hopefully the sponsors will step things up, but the question is also out there as to what are these sponsors doing for the festival? Money is obviously a good thing, but is it really so hard to put up a banner ad on your website? Some of the sponsor sites I checked were simply running their own house ads instead of promoting a festival for which they are a sponsor of. That just doesn't seem right to me.
I checked NJ Transit - no ads, which made sense since they rarely have ads on the site (it would have been nice to see a special ad/promotion for the festival though); News12 didn't have anything on the festival; neither did the website for the Lakewood Blue Claws or the New Jersey Department of Tourism site (where I was really hoping to see an ad).
Then it was on to the big guns - the entertainment related sponsors. The Asbury Park Press let me down by failing to have any mention of the Wave Festival on their main page, article pages, or the sections for Entertainment and Music.
WRAT did have a small mention of the festival on its main page, which was good (but not as much as I would have expected) and Metromix - the main sponsor of the festival this year - has a Wave Gathering ticket contest on the main page, but no ads anywhere else. In fact, they were one of the websites running a house ad for Metromix's Summer Guide rather than an ad for the Wave! Even their music main page (http://jerseyshore.metromix.com/music) failed to have any mention or ad promoting the festival. They are doing a major ticket giveaway on Facebook and Twitter, but would it kill them to run some ads for the festival?
It's hard for me to fathom why the major sponsors aren't even helping to promote the festival at this late juncture. As I said, money is great but the festival also needs buzz and the festival organizers should demand some help from these sponsors. Ironically, several websites that helped promote and sponsor the show in previous years are doing more this time around even though they are not listed as sponsors. Credit goes out to:
AsburyMusician.comThese sites all have the Wave Festival prominently featured on their websites. I guess old friends are sometimes a festival's best friends. I only hope that the Wave didn't make a mistake in not bringing someone like The Aquarian more into the fold. That is unquestionably the number one music publication in the area right now and word from employees is that they were a bit upset at what some perceive as being snubbed.
Make no mistake, I am very much looking forward to this year's festival and hope to continue the AsburyMusic.com tradition of providing the best Wave coverage anywhere, but I worry that the media coverage may not have been spread out as much as in previous years. We are not in an area where everybody reads the same publication or listens to just one radio station. If the coverage isn't spread out enough, many people who would have loved to attend the Wave may not even know about the festival.
In other words, money might not be everything. The right partners might be what you need more. The Wave organizers should demand their sponsors to be such partners...
Join us for McCarter at the Museum - renowned performing artists in one-night only events at the Princeton University Art Museum.
Jason Robert Brown is a four-time Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist of The Last Five Years, Parade, Songs for a New World, 13, The Bridges of Madison County, Honeymoon In Vegas and The Connector, has performed as a soloist or with his band in venues around the world, including sold-out shows at the London Palladium and Carnegie Hall. His albums as a singer-songwriter include Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes and How We React and How We Recover on Ghostlight, and Coming From Inside the House and Live In Concert with Stephen Sondheim on Concord.
With Special Guest Tony nominee Betsy Wolfe. Tony Award-nominated actress Betsy Wolfe is currently starring as Audrey in the acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, following her recent Broadway run as Madeline Ashton in the hit musical Death Becomes Her. She previously originated the title role in Joy, the new musical inspired by inventor Joy Mangano, and earned a 2023 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her celebrated performance as Anne Hathaway in & Juliet. Other Broadway credits include starring as Jenna in Waitress, Cordelia in the acclaimed revival of Falsettos, Bullets Over Broadway, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Everyday Rapture, and 110 in the Shade, as well as her critically acclaimed performance as Cathy in the Off-Broadway revival of The Last Five Years. Wolfe made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Die Fledermaus and has appeared as a guest artist with more than 65 symphony, pops, and philharmonic orchestras worldwide, including the New York Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestra, with performances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Her screen credits include First One In, Estella Scrooge, CBS’s Instinct, and the film adaptation of The Last Five Years. Wolfe is also the co-founder of BroadwayEvolved, the acclaimed musical theatre training program she launched in 2018 to train and mentor the next generation of theatre artists.
A limited number of early access tickets for McCarter Director’s Circle members and members of the Museum’s Partner Circle are available, on sale Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 12:00 PM. General public on sale begins Friday, September 18, 2026 at 12:00 PM.
Please be aware there is no public drop-off or parking at the Museum. For visitors with mobility needs, please contact the Museum at least three business days in advance of your visit to request special access to the Museum via Elm Drive. Call 609-258-3788 and select option 1 to speak to a visitor services staff member, or email Louise Barrett at [email protected].
