(FRENCHTOWN, NJ) -- The Hatch, a free family-friendly festival featuring colorful costumes, upbeat musical performances, and a community procession, returns to Frenchtown for the sixth time on Saturday, May 17, 2025.

“The Hatch is a moment to come together with friends, family, neighbors, and strangers alike to create art, be silly, and dream,” said Jill Kearney, ArtYard’s founder and executive director. “All are invited to participate by dressing up as a bird, joining the procession, dancing to the music, and imagining the change you wish to hatch into the world.”

The Hatch is a biennial festival established in 2016 celebrating the founding of ArtYard, an arts center dedicated to incubating new work, as well as a nod to the location’s 20th-century history as an egg hatchery. This year’s festival is inspired by Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope is the thing with feathers.”

The festival starts at 2:00pm with the “cracking” of a towering 14-foot steel-welded egg perched on the edge of ArtYard’s riverside courtyard at 13 Front Street. Colorful flocks of human birds and giant bird puppets will emerge, and a marching band, mariachi, and 25-person Brazilian drum corps will lead the procession to Sunbeam Lenape Park and through the borough’s idyllic downtown, ending in a lively dance party back at ArtYard. Viewers will not want to miss this fast-moving performance so arriving with plenty of time to park and arrive at 13 Front Street is recommended.

The festival features performances by Day Day Juicy Couture, featured on HBO Max’s reality voguing series Legendary; Orquesta La Sagrada Concepcion, a New Brunswick brass band; Mariachi Nuevo Amanecer, of Queens, NY; Batala Philly, an all-percussion community band; and crooner Eric Mingus, son of legendary jazz musician Charles Mingus.

Partnering organizations include Frenchtown’s Studio Route 29, Frenchtown Elementary School, the Lambertville Library, and coLAB Arts. A group of local seniors will perform a dance choreographed by Michael Sazonov, a dancer and teaching artist who leads ArtYard’s Creative Movement series.

Anyone planning to attend the festival in costume that wishes to hatch out of the egg may arrive for the parade lineup promptly at 1:00pm, when Sazonov will lead a bird walking lesson.

Costume workshops in ArtYard’s Hatch Workshop are ongoing through Sunday, May 11. Visitors may also purchase a colorful bird suit at ArtYard’s Contrary Art Shop to embellish, or make their own costume, prop, or puppet at home.

Shoppers and diners can witness the community procession along Bridge Street. Local business owners will join the festival by lining the parade route playing whimsical instruments. FiNNBAR will offer Hatch-themed menu items.

Parking for the festival is at Old Frenchtown Field, 1001-1109 Harrison St., a short walk along the rail trail adjacent to the Delaware River from ArtYard. Suggested $5 cash donations support the Delaware Valley High School Performing Arts Boosters, who will be on hand as parking greeters. Handicapped parking is in ArtYard’s parking lot on Lott Street.

The Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Bridge is only open to traffic from Pennsylvania to New Jersey as part of an improvement project by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission which allows visitors to easily arrive at ArtYard. Drivers heading west to return to Pennsylvania can follow detours north to Milford or they can travel south to cross the river in Stockton.

The Hatch is made possible with funds from the Hunterdon County Cultural & Heritage Commission, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.