Tidewater Virginia Festivals by John C. Banks
Tidewater Virginia has an exciting schedule of festivals. The following is a list of some of the more popular festivals which run from April thru December.
Virginia Arts Festival
Begun in 1997 as a way to promote tourism, this spring festival showcases artists from around the world as well as the Virginia’s best professional artists. The arry of performances include of music, theatre and dance. Festival events are held in eight cities across Hampton Roads in concert halls, performing arts centers, opera houses, theatres, museums, outdoor stages, and historic churches.
North American Sand Soccer Championship
The North American Sand Soccer Championship, held annually in Virginia Beach in early June. Between games, players and spectators, mingle and relax on the the beach. Often during the event, street vendors attend selling foods and art on the boardwalk. Teams for this event are a mix of adults, teenagers, and small children. There are all-male teams, all-female teams, and coed teams that make up each division. A pro division includes a team from the United States as well as from other countries.
Norfolk Jazz Festival
Held in Town Point Park over 2 days, this is the region’s longest running outdoor jazz festival. The festival recruits nationally known artists as well as a selection of local and regional jazz favorites.
The Virginia Beach Boardwalk Art Show & Festival
The Virginia Beach Boardwalk Art Show & Festival is one of the Commonwealth’s most highly anticipated events. Attendance often exceeds 350,000 visitors and art sales can surpass $2 million annually. The event has been ranked in the top 50 best fine art & design shows in the nation by Sunshine artist magazine. Prize money for artist awards reached over $30,000 in 2008, a milestone which has attracted high-caliber artists and art collectors since.
Suffolk Peanut Fest
Suffolk Peanut Fest offers concerts, amusement rides, contests and competitions, a demolition derby, a truck and tractor pull, motorcycle rally, fireworks, as well as local and national entertainment. The event has been featured in numerous magazines, including Virginia Business, Southern Living, The Southern Farmers Almanac, Best Festivals-Mid Atlantic and others.
Hampton Jazz Festival
The Hampton Jazz Festival is held each year during the last full weekend in June. Festival organizers evaluate available jazz, R&B and blues artists that are on tour during the time of the festival, bringing in the best musicians possible. Held in the Hampton Coliseum, the venue is highly respected by Hampton residents and visitors.
Bayou Boogaloo & Cajun Food Festival
The Bayou Boogaloo & Cajun Food Festival is Norfolk’s annual New Orleans’ and Bayou culture festival. This 3-day summer festival delivers the heart and soul of Louisiana to visitors to Town Point Park in true Cajun and Creole style.
Norfolk Latino Music Festival
This August festival features the largest outdoor dance floor in Hampton Roads filled with salsa, merengue, and guaguanco dancing and live music by local, regional, and national Latin recording artists.
Newport News Fall Festival of Folklife
The Newport News Fall Festival of Folklife is held in Newport News. This is Southeast Virginia’s biggest traditional craft show, featuring over 200 vendors, crafts, trades, entertainment, foods and children’s activities.
Holidays in the City
Holidays in the City celebrates 25 years with six weeks of magical festivities, saluting the holidays of Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Year’s Eve. The festivities in late November with the Grand Illumination of the downtown skyline. The highlight is the annual Grand Illumination Parade where floats, marching bands, giant balloons, dancers and Santa himself parade through downtown Norfolk.
About the Author
The author writes for Virginia websites including Virginia Beach VA, Tidewater – Hampton Roads Virginia and Chesapeake Bay News.
Louis Armstrong’s set at 1958 Newport Jazz Festival
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Billie Holiday (Ted Williams Collection, Newport Jazz Festival 1958) Music Poster … |
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Jam Session (At Newport Jazz Festival, 1958) Music Poster Print … |
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(11×17) Billie Holiday (Ted Williams Collection, Newport Jazz Festival 1958) Music Poster $2.80 (11×17) Billie Holiday (Ted Williams Collection, Newport Jazz Festival 1958) Music Poster… |
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The Complete Monterey Pop Festival (The Criterion Collection) $57.20 The Monterey International Pop Festival, the three-day event staged in 1967 that has become one of rock music’s most famous and in some ways greatest concerts, gets the royal treatment with this three-disc boxed set. Material on two of the three discs has already been widely available. Monterey Pop, D.A. Pennebaker’s 79-minute, 1968 film, effectively sets the scene for the festival, which took pl… |
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Jazz on a Summer’s Day $26.97 Part concert documentary, part pop-cultural time capsule, Bert Stern’s Jazz on a Summer’s Day chronicles the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival with an approach as deceptively relaxed, even impulsive, as the music itself. Still photographer Stern sidesteps more formal documentary conventions such as narrative voiceovers to wander purposefully from festival stage to boarding-house jam sessions, taking in t… |
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Ellington At Newport 1956 $11.99 When Duke Ellington took his orchestra to the Newport Jazz Festival in 1956, the band was in need of an uplift, some humongous event that would revitalize its image in the wake of bebop, hard bop, and so many more jazz currents. Ellington got the lift he needed when he called “Diminuendo in Blue” with set-closer “Crescendo in Blue” tacked on the end. Tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves got the nod fr… |
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Jazz on a Summer’s Day [VHS] $17.95 Part concert documentary, part pop-cultural time capsule, Bert Stern’s Jazz on a Summer’s Day chronicles the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival with an approach as deceptively relaxed, even impulsive, as the music itself. Still photographer Stern sidesteps more formal documentary conventions such as narrative voiceovers to wander purposefully from festival stage to boarding-house jam sessions, taking in t… |
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JVC Jazz Festival Newport R.I. 1989 6th Anniversary … |
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JVC Jazz Festival Newport R.I. 1996 13th Anniversary … |
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High Society $5.96 MGM’s bold idea to remake George Cukor’s Oscar-winning upperclass romantic farce, The Philadelphia Story, into a star-studded, Technicolor musical with Cole Porter tunes somehow works splendidly and remains an underrated gem. Even the plot and character names–and some bits of dialogue–all remain the same as the original. Crooning Bing Crosby replaces Cary Grant as the wealthy ex-husband trying t… |
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Newport Jazz Festival All Star : Newport Jazz Festival All Stars $9.13 Newport Jazz Festival All Star : Newport Jazz Festival All Stars |
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Live at the Newport Jazz Festival 1959 $17.21 Live at the Newport Jazz Festival 1959 |
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Live at Newport Jazz Festival 1972 $15.47 Live at Newport Jazz Festival 1972 |
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Woody Herman : Live at the Newport Jazz Festival 1972 & $13.97 Woody Herman : Live at the Newport Jazz Festival 1972 & |
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The 1962 Newport Jazz Festival $13.64 The Newport Jazz Festival was host to great artists such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Joe Williams, Peewee Russell and many others. ~ Rovi |
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Newport Jazz Festival All Stars $16.96 First held in 1954, the Newport Jazz Festival remains a stellar showcase of prominent jazz talent. When founded by George Wein, it was the only outdoor jazz festival, and was much more scaled-down than today. Featuring Wein himself as well as a whole slew of established and rising stars including Lew Tabackin, Warren Vache, Eddie Jones, Oliver Jackson, Howard Alden, and more, NEWPORT JAZZ FESTIVAL ALL-STARS invites viewers to experience the event from the inside out. |
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The Newport Folk Festival 1959 $12.13 The Newport Folk Festival was founded in 1959 by George Wein, who had already established the successful Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island a few years earlier. The festival featured folk, blues, country, and bluegrass musicians and, in its in |
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Vanguard Newport Folk Festival Sampler $12.23 Founded in 1959 by Theodore Bikel, Oscar Brand, Pete Seeger, George Wein, and Albert Grossman, and modeled after the already established and successful Newport Jazz Festival, the Newport Folk Festival ran in its original configuration throughout the ’60s |
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Woodstock Jazz Festival Woodstock Jazz Festival $13.52 Woodstock Jazz Festival Woodstock Jazz Festival |
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Portland Jazz Festival $196.86 Portland Jazz Festival |
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Manassas Jazz Festival $12.93 Manassas Jazz Festival |
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German Jazz Festival 1964 $14.96 German Jazz Festival 1964 |
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Ealing Jazz Festival 2000 $15.61 Ealing Jazz Festival 2000 |
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DVD : at Montreal Jazz Festival $13.29 DVD : at Montreal Jazz Festival |
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Black & White: Jazz Festival $14.08 Black & White: Jazz Festival |
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‘Round About Midnight [LP Reissue] $21.98 Given that ‘Round About Midnight was Miles Davis’ debut Columbia recording, it was both a beginning and an ending. Certainly the beginning of his recording career with the label that issued most if not all of his important recordings; and the recording debut of an exciting new band that had within its ranks Philly Joe Jones, Paul Chambers, pianist Red Garland, and an all but unknown tenor player named John Coltrane. The title track was chosen because of its unique rendition with a muted trumpet, debuted at the Newport Jazz Festival the summer before to a thunderous reception. The date was also an ending of sorts because by the time of the album’s release, Davis had already broken up the band, which re-formed with Cannonball Adderley a year later as a sextet, but it was a tense year. Musically, this sound is as unusual and as beautiful as it was when issued in 1956. Davis had already led the charge through two changes in jazz — both cool jazz and hard bop — and was beginning to move in another direction here that wouldn’t be defined for another two years. Besides the obvious lyrical and harmonic beauty of “Round About Midnight” that is arguably its definitive version even over Monk’s own, there are the edges of Charlie Parker’s “Au Leu-Cha” with its Bluesology leaping from every chord change in Red Garland’s left hand. Coltrane’s solo here too is notable for its stark contrast to Davis’ own: he chooses an angular tack where he finds the heart of the mode and plays a melody in harmonic counterpoint to the changes but never sounds outside. Cole Porter’s “All of You” has Davis quoting from Louis Armstrong’s “Basin Street Blues” in his solo that takes out the tune, and Coltrane has never respected a melody so much. But it’s in “Bye-Bye Blackbird” that we get to hear the band gel as a unit, beginning with Davis playing through the melody, muted and sweet, slightly flatted out until he reaches the harmony on the refrain and begins his solo on a high note. Ga… |
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‘Round About Midnight [Legacy Edition] $23.99 Miles Davis’ entry into the Sony Legacy Edition series features his Columbia Records debut and the first offering from his quintet with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. The label already issued the album in a definitive presentation with four additional tracks taken from the sessions onboard. Musically, the sound on ‘Round About Midnight is as unusual and beautiful as it was when it was issued in 1956. Davis, having already spearheaded two changes in jazz — with cool jazz and hard bop — was beginning to move in another direction here that wouldn’t be defined for another two years. The title track showcasing his muted trumpet premiered at the Newport Jazz Festival the previous summer (in a sextet with Thelonious Monk on piano) to a thunderous reception, and the studio offering is stunning as well. Charlie Parker’s “Au Leu-Cha” is edgy, with deep blues leaping from every chord. Coltrane’s solo is notable for its stark contrast to Davis’ own: Coltrane chooses an angular tack where he finds the heart of the mode and plays in harmonic counterpoint to the changes but never sounds outside. Cole Porter’s “All of You” has Davis quoting from Louis Armstrong’s “Basin Street Blues” in his solo. On “Bye-Bye Blackbird” we get to hear the band gel as a unit, beginning with Davis playing through the head, muted and sweet, slightly flatted out until he reaches the chorus and begins his solo on a high note. Garland slips shapes into those interval cracks and shifts them as the rhythm section keeps “soft time.” Of the bonus material, the gem is Jackie McLean’s “Little Melonae” — Davis and company recorded before the composer could. The band comes out blazing on this set, but it’s Coltrane who’s the surprise in his quoting various Dizzy Gillespie solos. For those who had already purchased the album, it may be disconcerting to need to buy it again in order to procure the 33 minutes of live material on disc two. Track one is that legendar… |
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Albums Produced by George Avakian: ’round About Midnight, Milestones, Haley’s Juke Box, Jazz Goes to College, Louis Armstrong Plays W.c. Handy $9.43 Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher’s book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: ’round About Midnight, Milestones, Haley’s Juke Box, Jazz Goes to College, Louis Armstrong Plays W.c. Handy, Bill Haley and His Comets, the World’s Greatest Gospel Singer, Expectations. Excerpt: ‘Round About Midnight is an album by jazz musician Miles Davis. It was his debut on Columbia Records, and was originally released in March 1957 (CL 949). The album took its name from the Thelonious Monk song “‘Round Midnight”. Recording sessions took place at Columbia Studio D on October 26 1955, and at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio on June 5 and September 10 1956. ‘Round About Midnight is widely recognized by jazz critics as a landmark album in hard bop and one of the greatest jazz albums of all time. On April 17 2001, Sony reissued the album for compact disc on its Columbia/Legacy label, which featured 24-bit remastering and included bonus tracks and master takes from the initial sessions. A further two-disc reissue on June 14, 2005, was released, as part of Sony’s Legacy Edition series, which featured the 2001 reissue and a second disc containing Davis’ celebrated Newport Jazz Festival of 1955 performance of “‘Round Midnight”, along with a recording of the quintet’s set from the 1956 Pacific Jazz Festival. At the Newport Jazz Festival in 1955, Davis performed the song “‘Round Midnight” as part of an all-star jam session, with the song’s composer Thelonious Monk, along with Connie Kay and Percy Heath of the Modern Jazz Quartet, Zoot Sims, and Gerry Mulligan. Davis’s solo received an extremely positive reception from many jazz fans, and critics. It was viewed as a significant comeback and indication of a healthy, drug-free Miles (he had in fact been free from heroin addiction for well over a year). Miles’s response to this performance was typically… More: |
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Ancienne Capitale D’ Tat Am Ricain: New York, Newport (Rhode Island), Portland (Maine), Princeton (New Jersey), San Jos (Californie) $25.15 Used – Ce contenu est une compilation d’articles de l’encyclop die libre Wikipedia. Pages: 118. Non illustr . Chapitres: New York, Newport (Rhode Island), Portland (Maine), Princeton (New Jersey), San Jos (Californie), Shreveport, Histoire de New York, Affaire Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Statue de la Libert, Jackson Pollock, Brooklyn, D mographie de la ville de New York, Newport Jazz Festival, Living Theatre, Cath drale Saint-Patrick de New York, M morial du World Trade Center, V-J Day in Times Squa |
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Ancienne Capitale D’ Tat Am Ricain: New York, Newport (Rhode Island), Portland (Maine), Princeton (New Jersey), San Jos (Californie) $21.92 Used – Ce contenu est une compilation d’articles de l’encyclop die libre Wikipedia. Pages: 118. Non illustr . Chapitres: New York, Newport (Rhode Island), Portland (Maine), Princeton (New Jersey), San Jos (Californie), Shreveport, Histoire de New York, Affaire Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Statue de la Libert, Jackson Pollock, Brooklyn, D mographie de la ville de New York, Newport Jazz Festival, Living Theatre, Cath drale Saint-Patrick de New York, M morial du World Trade Center, V-J Day in Times Squa |
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Ancienne Capitale D’ Tat Am Ricain: New York, Newport (Rhode Island), Portland (Maine), Princeton (New Jersey), San Jos (Californie) $19.15 Used – Ce contenu est une compilation d’articles de l’encyclop die libre Wikipedia. Pages: 118. Non illustr . Chapitres: New York, Newport (Rhode Island), Portland (Maine), Princeton (New Jersey), San Jos (Californie), Shreveport, Histoire de New York, Affaire Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Statue de la Libert, Jackson Pollock, Brooklyn, D mographie de la ville de New York, Newport Jazz Festival, Living Theatre, Cath drale Saint-Patrick de New York, M morial du World Trade Center, V-J Day in Times Squa |
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Ancienne Capitale D’ Tat Am Ricain: New York, Newport (Rhode Island), Portland (Maine), Princeton (New Jersey), San Jos (Californie) $22.86 Used – Ce contenu est une compilation d’articles de l’encyclop die libre Wikipedia. Pages: 118. Non illustr . Chapitres: New York, Newport (Rhode Island), Portland (Maine), Princeton (New Jersey), San Jos (Californie), Shreveport, Histoire de New York, Affaire Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Statue de la Libert, Jackson Pollock, Brooklyn, D mographie de la ville de New York, Newport Jazz Festival, Living Theatre, Cath drale Saint-Patrick de New York, M morial du World Trade Center, V-J Day in Times Squa |
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Australian Flautists: Australian Classical Flautists, Australian Jazz Flautists, Don Burrows, Jane Rutter, Raja Ram, Neville Amadio $8.78 Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher’s book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Australian Classical Flautists, Australian Jazz Flautists, Don Burrows, Jane Rutter, Raja Ram, Neville Amadio, Alexa Still, Charles Davis. Excerpt: Donald Vernon Burrows, AO, MBE (born 8 August 1928 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian jazz and swing musician, playing the clarinet, saxophone, and flute. His best-known group is the Don Burrows Quartet: Don Burrows (multiple woodwind), George Golla (guitar), Ed Gaston (bass) and Alan Turnbull (drums). Burrows has played with world-renowned musicians such as Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Nat King Cole, Oscar Peterson, James Morrison, Tony Bennett, the Sydney Symphony, Stéphane Grappelli, and Cleo Laine. 1973 was a watershed year for Burrows in which he received the first gold record won by an Australian jazz musician for his record Just the Beginning; instigated the first jazz studies program in the southern hemisphere at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music and was awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). In 1979, he was appointed as chair of the jazz studies department at the conservatorium. He was invited to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1972 and later the Newport Jazz Festival. He has performed to normally classical music audiences through tours with Musica Viva and Australian Broadcasting Corporation concert series. Burrows fronted the nationally televised show The Don Burrows Collection for six years. He has an extensive recording career in his own right with his groups, and has performed on many more albums with other artists. In the 1980s, he associated closely with the then young James Morrison. In the 2000s, Burrow’s public profile has receded somewhat as he performs less than he used to. In 2005 he toured with a small band including renowned … More: |
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Bai Konte $39.88 Used – Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Alhaji Bai Konte (* 1920 in Brikama, Gambia; 1983) ist ein Musiker und Jeli aus Gambia. Er spielte auf dem westafrikanischen Instrument Kora, einer 21-saitigen Stegharfe. Er war der erste Musiker, der dieses Instrument live 1973 in den Vereinigten Staaten beim Newport Jazz Festival spielte. Zwei seiner vier S hne Dembo Konte und Sherrifo Konteh sind ebenfalls f r |
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Bai Konte $30.09 Used – Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Alhaji Bai Konte (* 1920 in Brikama, Gambia; 1983) ist ein Musiker und Jeli aus Gambia. Er spielte auf dem westafrikanischen Instrument Kora, einer 21-saitigen Stegharfe. Er war der erste Musiker, der dieses Instrument live 1973 in den Vereinigten Staaten beim Newport Jazz Festival spielte. Zwei seiner vier S hne Dembo Konte und Sherrifo Konteh sind ebenfalls f r |
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Bai Konte $42.45 Used – Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Alhaji Bai Konte (* 1920 in Brikama, Gambia; 1983) ist ein Musiker und Jeli aus Gambia. Er spielte auf dem westafrikanischen Instrument Kora, einer 21-saitigen Stegharfe. Er war der erste Musiker, der dieses Instrument live 1973 in den Vereinigten Staaten beim Newport Jazz Festival spielte. Zwei seiner vier S hne Dembo Konte und Sherrifo Konteh sind ebenfalls f r |
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Bai Konte $29.77 Used – Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Alhaji Bai Konte (* 1920 in Brikama, Gambia; 1983) ist ein Musiker und Jeli aus Gambia. Er spielte auf dem westafrikanischen Instrument Kora, einer 21-saitigen Stegharfe. Er war der erste Musiker, der dieses Instrument live 1973 in den Vereinigten Staaten beim Newport Jazz Festival spielte. Zwei seiner vier S hne Dembo Konte und Sherrifo Konteh sind ebenfalls f r |