Garden State Live!

The Prudential North to Shore Festival and Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City announced the launch of Garden State Live!, a new monthly performance series designed to highlight the talents of rising New Jersey musicians.

Two to three emerging New Jersey artists — primarily from South and Central New Jersey — will be featured at each of these monthly Friday night concerts at Hard Rock’s Sound Waves Theater. Concerts start at 7 pm.

Performers who will be featured in the first five months of the series include:

August 8: Low Cut Connie will inaugurate the series. The band’s lead singer and songwriter, Adam Weiner, hails from Cherry Hill. The Atlantic City-born alternative rock trio Isn’t It Always? — featuring Devin Scheck on vocals and guitar, Joey Dobbins on drums and Juliani Bonilla on bass — will open the first Garden State Live show.

September 5: Blues musicians Billy Walton of Asbury Park, Debra Devi of Jersey City and the Somers Point-based trio Twisted Livin.

October 3: Rising pop rocker Destinee Monroe of Egg Harbor, the Hammonton-based band red and the Grip Weeds, a power-pop quartet from Highland Park

November 21: Contemporary country artists Megan Knight of Williamstown, Holdyn Barder of Stone Harbor and Kenny Curcio of Medford.

December 19: Pop singer-songwriters Max Davey of Woodstown, Maddie Hogan of Cape May and Camille K of Mount Laurel

Tickets are $10.

More artists will be added to the Garden State Live! lineup, with performances continuing through May 2026.

In addition to June mainstage performances featuring headlining comedians and musicians in Asbury Park and Newark, this season the festival is also presenting a full year of community-focused arts events in Atlantic City. From block parties and family-friendly street fairs to exciting new performance series like Garden State Live!, the festival will amplify Atlantic City’s arts and entertainment scene through next summer.