Night in Venice sets sail in Ocean City

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - There have been years when just hours after they steered their wooden motorboat across the Great Egg Harbor Bay from their dock in Somers Point to revel in Ocean City's Night in Venice proceedings - and perhaps even win a trophy for their decorating prowess in the annual boat parade - members of the Caserta family come up with the idea for next year's festivities.

"It'll be the next day after Night in Venice and I'll hear a song on the radio and think, 'Yeah, that's a good song. . . . That would be perfect for Night in Venice.' And then the idea just stays with us for the next year," says Michael Caserta, 66, a retired salesman, who has been participating in the parade for 33 years with his two daughters and his father, Joe Sr., 94, who served as a tank driver during World War II.

But some years, the ideas just don't start to flow until a week or two before the event - over cocktails at the family's backyard tiki bar - and then they begin the scramble to plan, create, and execute whatever theme they come up with, according to Caserta's daughter Danielle Don, 37, of Somers Point.

"But usually, when we get together during the holidays, we start talking about it, and then over the next few weeks we start throwing ideas back and forth and come up with the theme," said Don, a meeting planner by trade.

Either way, none of it really comes together until right before countdown - like on the Friday night and Saturday morning right before Night in Venice, which takes to the water for the 62nd year Saturday. The Casertas' will be one of more than 60 boats and 200 decorated homes that organizers say will take part in this year's Night in Venice.

"That's really when the fun begins," said Don. "Other friends and family arrive for the weekend and get assigned a task to work on. It gets a little crazy and then somehow we just pull it all together."

Some years, they've pulled all-nighters to get everything done in time. Other years - when it's been particularly rainy and it doesn't appear the boat parade will even happen - they've worked right up to deadline to get everything finished.

"You have years where you feel like things are still being worked on as the boat is leaving the dock," said Joe Caserta Sr. "But it's a labor of love."

Don agrees.

"People outside our bubble don't really understand it . . . what it means to us," she said. "We have the most wonderful family in the world. And this is our one night a year to really all get together and to just have fun putting this together. It means the world to us."

Working from a small detached garage, Don and her sister, Nicole Bauman, 40, of Haddon Heights, dispatch various tasks to the helpers as they arrive, from signs and props that need to be built and painted, to costumes - usually matching T-shirts that have to be silk-screened with a logo or witty phrase - for the 10 or 15 people who will be on the boat. Space on the boat is limited, so those lucky enough to be asked aboard must be people who can "dance and sing for at least three hours."

"And who can stand to hear the same song over and over and over again in a continuous loop the entire time," Michael Caserta said.

Sometimes the theme is built around a fun song, like a few years ago, when the boat was outfitted in giant plastic cups and the Casertas' craft played the Toby Keith hit "Red Solo Cup" as it made its way through the inlets and lagoons of the parade's water route along Ocean City's bay front.

Other years, the themes have been more personal to the family, such as when Don got engaged to her boyfriend after seven years of courtship. The boat, from which Beyoncé's "All the Single Ladies" blared, was plastered with signs that proclaimed that "he finally put a ring on it," and the stern was adorned with a giant papier-mâché diamond ring to drive the point home. Crowds of onlookers familiar with the Casertas' annual entry in the boat parade applauded the news, Don said.

And both of those entries were prizewinning for the family - each placing first in the classic boat division. The Casertas have also a number of times won overall first place in the parade. The "trophies" are engraved, silver-framed photos of their entry awarded by the City of Ocean City.

Though the details were being kept under wraps ahead of time, this year the Casertas have chosen a "Raise Your Glass for the Troops" theme - fitting with the overall parade theme of "Destination America," which has been selected by the city.

Night in Venice began in Ocean City in 1954 after a city official traveled to Italy and witnessed a nighttime spectacle of boats lit up with tiny decorative lights in the canals. He thought Ocean City's back-bay lagoons would be the perfect place for a boat festival.

Over the decades it has evolved into a town-wide celebration that some have compared to "dry Mardi Gras," as Ocean City does not permit the public consumption of alcoholic beverages. But parties in private homes are permitted, of course, and more than 150,000 people usually pack the town during the one-night event that locals say is the one night of the year the former Methodist camp town "lets its hair down" for a celebration.

The parade begins Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at the Ocean City-Longport Bridge and will wind southward to Tennessee Avenue, taking about three hours to complete the route.

Although the public isn't allowed on the docks of private homes and clubs along the bay front, there will be free grandstand seating on a first-come, first-serve basis at various viewing points for the boat parade set up along the route, including at Battersea Road, North Street, First Street, Second Street Marina, Fourth, Sixth, 11th, 13th, 15th, and 16th Streets, and Tennessee Avenue.

Tickets will also be available to view the parade from bleacher seating at the Bayside Center at 520 Bay Ave., costing $7 for adults and $3 for children under age 12. Admission to the grounds of the center includes family-friendly entertainment and live music, face-painting, games, and crafts beginning at 4:30 p.m.

Night in Venice will culminate with fireworks launched from a barge north of the Ninth Street Bridge, off Third Street, after the parade concludes at Tennessee.

Besides the decorated boats, hundreds of homes - especially those along the bay front and the dozens of little lagoons - are festooned for the evening.

Among them is Fran McIntyre's house and dock on Northpoint Lagoon, where the decorating theme - this year's is "This Land Is Your Land" - is chosen by the grandkids. The decorations will feature huge cardboard cutouts of iconic U.S. landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and the Hollywood sign.

"We really never win anything," said McIntyre, who has been hosting the annual party for about 125 people for a couple of decades now. "But that's not the point for us.

"We do this because it is fun and because I feel lucky enough to have a home on the water, and I like to share it with my friends and family every year for this wonderful event," said McIntyre, who has hired a catered food truck and a musician to perform for the evening.

"I grew up here. I went to Ocean City High School. . . . I just love the tradition of Night in Venice and how the town just comes together and has a party for one night of the year. It's like our Mardi Gras."

jurgo@phillynews.com

609-652-8382 @JacquelineUrgo