I decided to take a day trip down to Lambertville, NJ today – I was last there in 2014, and thought it would be fun to visit again. My memories of it were a nice location along the Delaware River on the edge of New Jersey across from New Hope, Pennsylvania, and a charming town filled with antiques and art. Some sources call Lambertville “the antiques capital of New Jersey,” and it has plenty of interesting architecture from the 1800s, as well as a host of art galleries. From those descriptions alone, it seems well worth an hour drive down from my home.
But as I arrived in town, the traffic was crazy, people were everywhere, and parking was hard to find. Someone said, “are you here for Shadfest?” and I had to say “huh?” I came for the art and antiques, but I arrived in the middle of a two day annual festival. While “Shadfest” is named for the local shad fishery on Lewis Island (noted as “the only Shad fishery left on the Delaware River”), it’s not so much about the fish, at least from what I could see. A little research shows that Shadfest began in 1981 as a showcase for the local art scene, but has evolved into a big street fair filled with hand-crafted art, jewelry, home goods, and a variety of food, music, and other miscellaneous booths (pickles on a stick, anyone?).
While I did wander the street fair for a bit, I enjoyed ducking into the various antiques galleries and artist studios much more. It seemed like a number of stores were closed, maybe as to not compete with the street fair? But that doesn’t make much sense, as one would think any store owner would want to take advantage of the foot traffic.
I did get a kick out this vintage Shadfest poster from 1996 that I saw in an antiques store. And while I didn’t see anyone wearing a shad mask, this example positioned on a mannequin outside of a store seemed to be screaming “buy me!” (I did not). If you’d like to learn more about Shadfest, check out their website here.
I mention coming down for the art and antiques – here’s one example of something I saw, looking at some paintings in a store on Kline’s Court – as you can see, the store has clothing, blankets, wine, and art … a nice mix. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any identification or tags for the paintings, so I can’t provide a shout-out for the artist. If you know this artist, please share the info in the comments section below.
