Family Films & Fine Crafts
By Jack Byrne
The last weekend of August marks the beginning of a new film festival and the revitalization of a beloved arts festival.
Making its maiden voyage in 2026 is the Avalon Family Film Festival hosted by Bobby Dee’s Rock’n Chair Restaurant from Aug. 27-29.
Returning to the Stone Harbor recreation field for the first time since 2020 is the newly revamped Jersey Cape Festival of Fine Craft at Stone Harbor from Aug. 29-30.
Jersey Cape Festival of Fine Craft at Stone Harbor
The Stone Harbor Arts & Crafts Festival dates back to 1963, but the borough has been without the cherished event since 2020 due to COVID-19 canceling it indefinitely. That was until Suzanne Hunter of Cape May Court House persuaded city officials to let her show the community her ability to revamp the festival.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to do this,” Hunter says. “I’m trying to make it as enjoyable as possible, bring back a once loved tradition, and create something that’s lasting and will be enjoyed for years to come.”
“We’re bringing it back without the giant circus tents,” Hunter says. “Three hundred booths of pretty much anything-goes is what [the old festival] ended up being, but now it’s strictly finely handcrafted art.”
This new version of the arts and crafts festival is going back to its glory days, honing in on what used to make it great – the fine arts. Out are the endless rows of tents selling odds and ends, and in its place will be a stripped-back craft festival featuring only the most talented artists in the area.
“Everything that is going to be seen there is made by the makers,” Hunter says. “Many of them are artists who are returning and are just stoked that it’s coming back … all original work, some prints, some reproductions, but all fine arts and finely handcrafted.”
The categories of fine art sold at the art festival will include paintings, sculptures, metalwork, pottery (both functional and decorative), fiber arts, jewelry, wearable arts, glasswork, woodwork, mixed media, and more. Prices will range from $20 for small gifts to $2,000 for household centerpieces.
In its first year back in over half a decade, the festival already has more than 80 artists signed up for the event. “I really only expected, or hoped for, maybe 50 to 75 artists,” Hunter says, “and I’ve surpassed my goal for the first year, which is excellent.”
As the organizer of the Jersey Cape Sea Glass and Coastal Arts Festival at Historic Cold Spring Village in Cape May for the past three years, Hunter had the confidence to take on this new endeavor.
“I had asked around in the township and the borough for a couple of years, wondering if anybody was going to restart this festival,” she says. “It was a resounding no, unless somebody independent came in and took it over. I decided that I could do it, I’m good at it, and I wanted to helm this project.”
While Hunter is an ideal choice to revitalize this arts festival, it’s been no small task for the full-time silversmith and sea glass artist.
“It’s an undertaking, it’s a lot of work,” she says. “It’s practically a full-time job for me. Besides dragging my family along, I’m kind of a one-man band.”
As a fulltime artist, Hunter travels up and down the East Coast. At each festival she’s participated in this year, she’s been hearing buzz about the upcoming event: “People are just super excited that it’s coming back; not just the artists, but also residents, too,” she says.
“Everywhere I go, when people see that I’m from Cape May County, they always ask me about Stone Harbor. ‘What happened?’ ‘Why did it go away?’ ‘Who’s in charge?’ People have been talking about it for years, so I just figured, ‘What the heck?’”
A portion of the proceeds from the Jersey Cape Festival of Fine Craft at Stone Harbor will be donated to HurriKanen’s Kids, a charity created by Lauren Keating Wear in honor of her son Kanen, who died of cancer at the age of 12 in 2019. Donations will help the organization “enrich the lives of families affected by pediatric cancer with a goal of eradicating it,” and “expand support to families nationwide & contribute to medical & holistic treatment research,” according to its website, hurrikanenskids.com.
Held Saturday, Aug. 2 from 10am-5pm and Sunday, Aug. 30 from 10am-4pm, the event will feature live music from locally well-known musicians such as Nolan Quinn, Gordon Vincent, and Lydia Crown. Various food trucks will also provide guests with food and beverages for purchase. Anyone looking to help contribute to the event can sign up to volunteer by emailing jerseycapeeventsllc@gmail.com.
Avalon Family Film Festival
New to the Jersey Shore film scene is the Avalon Family Film Festival. Hosted by Steve Monarque and Laura Carbonell Monarque of Cape May Court House, this festival is for guests of all ages. Out of the sunlight and into the limelight, local families will get to experience a wide variety of age-appropriate films, ranging from student shorts to international documentaries.
“We’ve always wanted to do a family film festival,” Laura says. “We noticed that there’s a lot of creative talent down here. Avalon is obviously a beautiful destination for the summer. It’s such a vibrant family community … So this is an opportunity for folks to share their stories and rally the community around a fun, creative piece of entertainment.”
Over the course of three evenings, more than 30 short films and features will be screened in an upstairs viewing area at Bobby Dee’s Rock’n Chair Restaurant. These films have been written, directed, and produced by up-and-coming filmmakers from across the country and around the world.
“We assumed it would be more local, but we actually got submissions of some really cool films from all over the world,” Laura says. “From Australia to Mexico, to Russia, to Japan, we’re going to have international films, and hopefully some international filmmakers attend, too.”
Each evening, guests can view films ranging from 2-minute animations to 40-minute documentaries. During the day, time will be set aside for filmmaker panels where young film enthusiasts can network and learn from industry professionals. Panel attendees will even get the chance to pitch their scripts to established filmmakers, producers, and agents to get constructive feedback on their work.
“When we’ve done film festivals earlier in our careers, you can tell who’s there to help nurture, give guidance, answer questions, and be a champion of your work and say, ‘Yeah, we think you're awesome,’ because that can be so validating to young filmmakers,” Laura says.
“Everyone has a story and everybody wants to tell their story,” Steve says. “There are a lot of very talented people out there who never get that opportunity … they're creative, they're artistic and talented. They should have an avenue.”
Now settled in Cape May Court House with two small children, Steve and Laura Monarque both have had illustrious careers in the performing arts. Steve has acted in movies such as “Sixteen Candles” and “No Small Affair,” but his best-known role was in the longtime syndicated cult-classic TV show, “Friday the 13th: The Series.”
Starring primarily on the stage throughout her career, Laura has appeared in numerous productions across the nation. She performed in the original tour of Broadway musical “A Night with Janis Joplin” and also played alongside indie folk band Blitzen Trapper in their original musical at Portland Center Stage.
The pair met performing on stage in the rock show “Destinations” at Le Poisson Rouge in New York’s Greenwich Village, a love story not even a Hollywood scriptwriter could dream of.
“She was my leading lady,” Steve says. “We just rocked on a stage where Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan played. After that, we stayed together, and we’ve been creating a lot of content ever since. We’ve also been giving back to artists, especially young artists. Giving them a chance, giving them a shot.”
Awards will be up for grabs for the filmmakers participating in the festival, and will be judged based on the following categories: drama, comedy, animation, documentary, faith-based, sci-fi/supernatural, surf/skate/snowboard, children’s, student, homegrown (NJ filmmakers), short film (under 40 minutes), and music video. There will be awards given to the winner of each category, an overall audience favorite, and a cash prize for “Best of Fest.”
The short films by these aspiring filmmakers at the Avalon Family Film Festival will make attendees laugh, cry, and think. Along with the many powerful student films which the Monarques are helping curate, two thought-provoking movies from their studio MonaVision Films will be screened (see sidebar).
Beachgoers will love the surf film category of the Avalon Family Film Festival. From the life of O’Neill surfboard creator Jack O'Neill, to the wacky world of ‘whomping’, another name for bodysurfing in Australia, numerous surfing documentaries will have viewers hitting the waves from the comfort of Bobby Dee’s Rock’n Chair.
“That venue, they have a great upstairs. It’s great for doing a family festival, because the establishment is very family-oriented,” Steve says. “Avalon is like Malibu, Calif., without the cliffs. This is a perfect place to have something like this. It just came at the right time, the right place, the right town. So we’re gonna give it a shot and see how it goes.”
The Avalon Family Film Festival will be held from Thursday, Aug. 27 to Saturday, Aug. 29 from 4-9pm each night. Admission will be free for everyone 18 and under, $10 per night for adults, or $20 for all three nights.
“There’s a lot going on with creative art,” Steve says. “It’s the only thing we have left in this world that’s not tainted in a sense … Individually, we can create. If it’s music, or if it’s art, or if it’s story, we can create … God gave us the gift of imagination, and that's something most people don’t use anymore. So let’s use it.”
Art, whether it’s on screen or in the palm of your hand, is crucial to the human experience. Art establishes culture which in turn tells us who we are as a species, both now and for future generations to come. Visitors and residents of the Seven Mile Beach are about to be spoiled with bountiful art and culture, and what better way to reflect on the summer of 2026 than by spending it with those you love at these two festivals?
A scene featuring Nick Horn in "Be There," a film to be featured in the Avalon Family Film Festival.
THE FILM FEST TEAM’S OWN MOVIES
In addition to founding, organizing, and running the Avalon Family Film Festival, Steve and Laura Monarque are also screening two films from their own production company, MonaVision Films.
Screening for the very first time is “The Western Flyer,” a 1960s PSA-style short film depicting a superhero helping children fight back against the crisis of bullying. “It’s a call to action for everybody watching to say, ‘We need to take a stand against this epidemic that’s rampant in our schools, causing these kids so much trauma,” Laura says.
MonaVision Films shot “The Western Flyer” in New Jersey schools and cast many local students to act in the short film. “We did a massive casting of like 500 kids, and we used non-professionals,” Steve says. “Those kids were really talented. You give them an opportunity, and they shine.”
Adds Laura: “It was a cool experience because a lot of the kids working on the film actually started opening up about experiences they had when they were bullied. So, it really did art’s job of opening up a dialogue for issues that we care about.”
MonaVisions will also be screening its inaugural film, “Simpler Times,” starring comedy legends Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara in their final onscreen appearance together (Stiller died in 2020, Meara in 2015). Stiller, known for his roles in “Seinfeld” and “King of Queens,” plays an old man in dire search of a newspaper, trapped in a world of modern technology.
“He’s so known for these goofy comedy roles,” Laura says, “but he has such a sweet, serious, heart-moving performance in this film, so it’s a really cool side of him to see.”