This Is The Friendliest Small Town in New Jersey
Collingswood may be a small borough, but it punches above its weight when it comes to community life. The town comes together often for street festivals, the arts, and live music. Longstanding traditions like May Fair have been around since 1979. Newer festivals like the Crafts and Fine Art Festival are just as popular. The walkable downtown keeps locals crossing paths year-round. These are a few of the reasons we think Collingswood is the friendliest town in New Jersey.
May Fair and the Collingswood Farmers Market
May Fair originated in 1979 as a small clothesline art exhibit. It is now getting ready for its 45th annual installment in May 2026. May Fair runs over a mile of downtown Collingswood's central business district along Haddon Avenue, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. A group of 250 artists and crafters fill the street to display and sell their pieces in a juried show. Alongside the art, the festival features multiple stages of live music, an antique and classic auto show, and several food courts serving pulled pork, elaborate desserts, and plenty in between.
May Fair also marks the return of the Collingswood Farmers Market, another longstanding tradition that has been around since 2000. The farmers market runs on Saturdays between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. May through Thanksgiving. Local produce, meat, dairy, pies, spreads, flowers, plants, and seedlings all show up at the booths, and the market doubles as a community gathering point as much as a shopping run.
Throughout the season, there is live music, pie and salsa contests, rescue dog tents, and more. Many of the original farmers who attended in the 2000 season still set up booths today, reinforcing the bond between local growers and the rest of the community.
Downtown Collingswood
Downtown Collingswood is centralized along Haddon Avenue, home to many favored local establishments like Hearthside. Hearthside features a contemporary open kitchen and wood-fired grill, using only local and seasonally available ingredients to create elevated dishes.
Time Lapse, a vintage goods store on Haddon Avenue, holds a trove of items from the 1980s, 1990s, and older, including vintage clothing, VHS tapes, out-of-print books, and a plethora of imported toys and collectibles.
2nd Saturday is another established Collingswood tradition along Haddon Avenue. It started when a group of store owners decided to celebrate the borough's creative personality, and it is now a beloved event that pulls together local arts and artists, live music, shopping, and dining.
The 2026 Second Saturdays are scheduled for the second Saturday of April, June, August, and October. During these evenings, between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., locals and visitors walk down Haddon Avenue to take in sidewalk artists at work, musicians performing, large-scale pop-up events, interactive exhibits, and participating local businesses joining the festivities.
Knight Park covers over 60 acres of green space in downtown Collingswood. The park serves both passive and active recreation, with space for community events, fishing, walking, biking, a playground area, and shaded pavilions for picnicking. It is open daily during daylight hours.
More Festivals
The Collingswood Crafts and Fine Art Festival takes place in August, featuring over 190 artists from the tri-state region and beyond. Their work appears in a wide variety of media, including blown glass, woodwork, jewelry, pet accessories, photography, collage, and watercolors. The festival's atmosphere is enhanced by live music, food vendors along Haddon Avenue, art-based activities for the whole family, and a tent showcasing donated artwork that is auctioned off, with proceeds donated to a local charity.
The Collingswood Book Festival is another annual tradition that many residents look forward to, where readers and writers congregate to celebrate literacy in all forms. The festival spans over six blocks of Haddon Avenue, with exhibitors, booksellers, writers, poetry readings, literary workshops, and performers all accessible for free.
New Jersey's Friendliest Town
With multiple annual traditions and festivals that return year after year, and Haddon Avenue acting as a central downtown host for all of them, Collingswood's friendliness has plenty of evidence to back it. Whether the long-running May Fair is approaching or the newer Craft and Fine Art Festival, the borough's residents are continually finding new ways to bring people together and keep them crossing paths. Events like the Collingswood Farmers Market, Second Saturday celebrations, and the Book Festival further encourage neighbors and visitors to gather and enjoy live music, local art, food vendors, literary programs, and shared community experiences.
