Every year as the golden days of summer fade away, the annual Newark Days Celebration returns offering visitors and residents one last chance to have fun in the sun, renew friendships and look back at the city’s history and appreciate its present-day culture and diversity.
Dave Fink, spokesman and entertainment director for the non-profit Newark Days Celebration Inc., which puts on the event, said it dates back more than six decades to the incorporation of the City of Newark on September 22, 1955. This year’s four-day event will open with a carnival and food festival at 5pm on Thursday, September 19 and continue through Sunday, September 22. Admission is free.
“There’s stuff for everybody,” Fink said, adding that the event will include more than 30 food booths featuring a wide range of ethnic foods, arts-and-craft booths, live music every day, family-friendly games, a children’s petting zoo and pony rides and a classic car and truck show on Saturday.
Classic hometown parade
The cornerstone of the event, Fink said, is the annual “Hometown Parade: Let the Games Begin!” program starting at 10am Saturday featuring 1,200 high school students and adults from the community in about 100 marching band and dance entries. The parade will start at Newark Boulevard and Thornton Avenue and march to Lake and Cedar boulevards. “It’s a classic hometown parade with people in the parade who are super-enthusiastic,” Fink said. “Once the parade starts going by it’s about 90 minutes of entertainment.”
Also back this year is the popular Newark Mile 4K race for adults and a separate Newark Mile 4Kids tiny tot race, both on Saturday. Caught your breath yet? There’s more, including:
• Wadaiko Newark taiko drum performance
• A roaming professional stilt walker
• Headliner stage music shows featuring rock, soul, jazz, Latin, country and pop
• A performance by Newark Symphonic Winds
• BMX balance bike obstacle course for kids younger than six
• A bicycle show and shine featuring custom built and vintage bikes
New this year, Fink said, are several performances by “Flippenout: Extreme Trampoline Show” which features specially-trained athletes performing Olympic type routines on trampolines using balls, skis, snowboards and portable walls accompanied by a lively musical soundtrack.
Modest beginnings
All of this would not be possible, Fink said, without the focus and dedication of more than 200 volunteers who start planning each year’s program in January. “In the beginning, the festival was modest,” Fink explained, consisting of a small carnival and local events. In 1972 Shirley Sisk, a longtime Newark volunteer and philanthropist, took the helm and began growing the event into the much larger celebration seen today.
During the 2020 and 2021 COVID-19 pandemic, the event was forced to go on hiatus before coming back in 2022. “We came back exceptionally strong,” Fink said, noting that 2022 and 2023 have been their best years yet.
Fink said current Newark Days Celebration Inc. president Laurie Gratz, who took over in 2023, is maintaining Sisk’s momentum. The multi-day gala is now the preeminent event in Newark and attracts thousands of visitors from the Tri-Cities and beyond. Sisk remains as president emeritus.
Fink has lived in Newark for 40 years and been a volunteer on the organization’s Board of Directors for 10 years. He says the group’s focus has always been to serve the community. “It’s our passion for having this event for our neighbors and making Newark Days a vibrant place and a cornerstone of our community.”
Newark Days Celebration
Thursday, Sep 19 – Sunday, Sep 22
Thurs-Fri, 5 – 10pm
Saturday, 7am – 10pm
Sunday, 11am – 10pm
MacGregor Playfields/Newark Community Center
35501 Cedar Blvd., Newark
510.320.3990
Admission: Free
