(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- On Saturday, April 4, 2026 at 6:00pm, SOUP CAN Magazine will mark five years of magazine magic by hosting its annual "Canniversary" with a night engineered to feel like a main‑stage, stadium‑level celebration of the community that built it. Wild Air Beerworks will host the event, but the scale of the evening reaches far beyond the venue — this is a full‑force thank‑you to the readers, performers, and neighbors who transformed Soup Can from a DIY idea into one of New Jersey's most vibrant creative movements. In a show of collective power, the Canniversary aims to break their standing record of food donations by gathering over 1,100 pounds in a single night, all to benefit Mercy Center of Asbury Park.
The Cannivesary poster looks like a festival lineup. Singer‑songwriter Boots opens with a heartfelt acoustic set before the night erupts into a pop‑punk surge from Mxtchxll, known for high‑voltage performances that ignite any room. The Chris Rockwell Collective brings a fusion of hip‑hop, poetry, and funk, and S0ulFood delivers a finale built to uplift the crowd to the clouds. Poets from NJ AMP as well as the NJ Poetry Renaissance will take the stage throughout the night, including Damian Rucci of PBS's Voices in the Garden, alongside a "Rapid Fire Royale Round" showcase hosted by chair of the NJ AMP Poetry Committee Sykes Hartmann. Wild Air co‑owner Nick Jiorle is also scheduled to perform his poetry, doubling down on the connection this venue has to the arts.
Guiding the entire night is Asbury Park Music Award–winning singer and fashion icon Blaise, featured in the very first issue of Soup Can Magazine, whose presence as host elevates the event with pure style and unmistakable star power.
More than a show, the Canniversary is a community appreciation day, a free-to-enter celebration of the people who have carried Soup Can Magazine for half a decade. With a blockbuster lineup, an anticipated record‑breaking food drive, and a crowd that has grown this project from the ground up, April 4th is poised to be one of the most iconic nights Asbury Park has seen in years.
The event takes place at Wild Air Beerworks (801 2nd Avenue) in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Admission is free. All ages welcome; 21+ with ID to drink.
SOUP CAN Magazine is a quarterly art & poetry print publication based in New Jersey, aiming to celebrate diversity and dismantle systems of oppression through cultural expression. They feature artists, musicians, and poets from across the globe.
