Basie’s Monmouth Conservatory to help ring in the season at Red Bank’s tree lighting
(RED BANK | NOV. 21) Select students and teachers from the Count Basie Center’s Monmouth Conservatory of Music will open the show this Friday, November 23 at Red Bank’s annual holiday tree lighting ceremony.
Monmouth Conservatory performers take the stage at Broad and Canal Streets at 6:45pm, performing an assortment of holiday compositions and classics. Afterwards, Tim McLoone’s Holiday Express performs, leading up to a town-wide countdown at approximately 8pm, when a switch is flicked and holiday lights throughout the borough illuminate at once. This includes the lights on the borough’s official holiday tree, located in beautiful Riverside Gardens Park and sponsored this year by the Basie Center and the Red Bank Knights Of Columbus.
The Conservatory concert and lighting ceremony are just park of Red Bank’s weekend-long holiday kickoff, which features the heralded Santa Express train ride from Little Silver train station, the concluding Santa Claus parade, plus season-long holiday horse and wagon rides on Saturdays, the downtown area’s window-dressed Holiday Scavenger Hunt, and more.
On Saturday, Nov. 24, Red Bank merchants celebrate Small Business Saturday, with discounts and fun giveaways throughout the borough. In addition, parking is free throughout the borough November 23-24 and again from December 12th through the 25th.
Information on all of Red Bank’s holiday festivities is available at redbank.org. Tickets for the Basie’s lineup of holiday programming, as well as gift certificates for holiday giftgiving, can be found at theBASIE.org.