Mike & Woo talk to Alli from Virginia Arts Festival on the opening day of their season
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00:00Good morning Hampton Roads. It is Mike powers and woo-woo and we are in studio with one of our favorite guests
00:05We don't do guests that often anymore and I really miss it. So I'm happy she is here
00:08Yeah, me too on behalf of the Virginia Arts Festival
00:12Everybody welcome Allie
00:14Yay, that was such a kind intro. I'm so happy to be here. Yeah, we're happy to have you because Allie is
00:21Bringing shows to the area and lots of amazing shows
00:26Shows that like you'll personally want to go to shows you want to bring your family to your kids will want to go to
00:32There's like a little bit of everything this season. You've got a couple big events going on. Yeah. Yeah, you're exactly right
00:39There's something for everyone
00:40So I work for the Virginia Arts Festival and I feel like the word festival can be misleading with what we do
00:45So we're a spring performing arts festival, but we don't take place in one city. We don't take place in one venue
00:52We're not one weekend, you know, we span the course of three months
00:55Yeah, and we're putting together 75 to 80 different performances different genres
01:00So we're kind of a mixed pot of anything and everything performing arts. It's everything from
01:06ballet to
01:08Instrumental music to the Beach Boys. Yes. I mean to hip-hop and and trumpet players
01:14Yeah, I got to introduce the Beach Boys last year because of Allie. That was amazing dream come true
01:19Yes, we're hoping you'll come back and join us again in June
01:23Kind of the the finale to what we're doing. So we're kicking things off tonight
01:27We're happy to have this contemporary dance company. Like you mentioned dance
01:31We will momix and they're doing their take on Alice in Wonderland. So it's called out momix Alice
01:36Very dramatic and lots of crazy costumes crazy illusion mixed with contemporary dance
01:42So that's Wednesday and Friday and again, we're in two different cities. So tonight we're in Norfolk at Chrysler Hall
01:48Friday we'll turn around and go to Ferguson Center
01:49So do I have to take anything if I was to go to the Alice in Wonderland?
01:57I don't know. I have heard that it is a very creative take
02:03Psychedelic if you please and then Sunday I was telling you guys a little bit about this. We've got this interesting
02:08We're calling it sort of our PG version of Rocky Horror Picture Show
02:12So this is the sound of music sing-along and what you're encouraged to do is show up in costume
02:18None your leader hose in and you're coming to Chrysler Hall on Sunday to watch the film sound of music
02:24But when you show up you get a little bag of props, so you're encouraged to sing along
02:28There's gonna be the words on screen like a little bit of karaoke. Yeah, and and you you use these props. It's very interactive
02:35So it should be a really fun Sunday Sunday afternoon. Come and join us at Chrysler Hall
02:38You should show up dress like a nun. Woo. That would be
02:42Well
02:45I mean and then where do you go from there? Because there's so many things like the tattoo the Virginia International Tattoo
02:50That's one of my favorites. Yes. The tattoo is kind of our signature event at the Virginia Arts Festival
02:54We've been around for 28 years. So has the Virginia International Tattoo
02:58So that takes place April 24th through the 27th that scope arena and we feature, you know
03:04Six or seven different countries every year. There's always a theme
03:07This year's theme is a celebration of the US Army Navy Marine Corps. It's their 250th birthday
03:12So really it's gonna be full of patriotism. So we hope you'll join us that events crazy. It's it's a busy week in Norfolk
03:19There's so much else to do with Norfolk NATO Festival happening the same weekend
03:22You can come early and meet a lot of the cast out there at what we call our tattoo hullabaloo on scope Plaza
03:28So it's sort of there's something for everybody. That's a very family-friendly event that we do at the tattoo
03:32Yeah, so I'm looking at the the calendar, right?
03:35Do you want to just do like you don't have to give dates or anything?
03:38But you just want to do like a quick run-through because there's so much
03:43So good. Our calendar is at VA fest org, but some of the highlights, you know
03:49We I feel like Rob Cross who's our director. He sort of tries to outdo himself every year and and this year is no exception
03:54I mean you're looking at April and we've got
03:57Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra next week. No next Friday
04:00We've got Wynton Marsalis here and this is an interesting project because he's working with
04:05We've invited 12 different HBCUs to come to Norfolk to sort of be mentored by the orchestra
04:10So then they're all gonna get adjudicated and two of those bands will get to open for the jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on Friday
04:16Night April 11th at Chrysler Hall. So it's a really important product that we do from an education standpoint
04:21Oh, yeah, but the jazz the jazz piece of it is just it's something to be seen if you've never kind of seen jazz
04:27This is sign of your first entry point that I think everybody should take advantage of well
04:30And I think to a lot of us are constantly looking for like things to do on the weekend something fun something different spice up
04:36Date night, you know, if you don't want to go to the movies again
04:39I know it's a beautiful weekend
04:40You go to the oceanfront like these are things where you might have never been exposed to something like this
04:45So get a ticket and enjoy it exactly and all of our tickets start at $25
04:49So I feel like there's an affordable, you know price point for anybody's budget. Yeah, nothing is $25 anymore
04:55It's crazy, so this is this is a super affordable ticket you just want you listen you want to bring the community out we do
05:03To your point about date night. We've got this really interesting venue. That is is technically a product of the pandemic
05:09We call it the Perry Pavilion right now if you were to go to this space
05:12It's it's directly across the street from Chrysler Hall across from our building at 440 Bank Street
05:16But when we couldn't present at indoor venues back in 2021, we said, okay
05:21Well, if we can't be inside then we'll just make our own venue outside
05:24So it's become part of our season since the pandemic this Perry Pavilion the Perry family's very generous donors of this
05:30So we actually have a full
05:32Americana folk kind of fun outdoor lineup at the Perry Pavilion every year now, too. So that kicks off May 1st
05:39We've got this fun dance band. It's gonna kind of take us into May and the Perry Pavilion
05:44Date night girls night family night. I mean, it's it's a huge space where you can come and and just really enjoy yourself in downtown
05:50I had a great makeout sesh with my wife at the Perry Pavilion
05:55Very proud. We had a great date night. I'm just saying it works. It works for day
06:00Forward to June because Williamsburg live Mike as he mentioned was out there last year for the Beach Boys
06:06Who is headlining Williamsburg live this year Williamsburg live is gonna be really fun. So this event
06:11Yeah the middle of June June 20th through the 22nd
06:15We kick things off that Friday night and this is all outside on the lawn of the art museums of Colonial Williamsburg
06:20I know you both have been it's right in the middle of Colonial Williamsburg
06:24So you can walk to Merchant Square you can walk down the streets of Colonial Williamsburg and you know
06:28See the the cast of characters there, but then at nighttime so that Friday we'll have an ABBA tribute band
06:34So cool, so put on your your polyester
06:40That'll kick things off Friday Saturday night
06:43We've got the band Perry which I think haven't really been performing much in the last few years
06:48But super super popular band back in the early 2000s. So they're kind of having a resurgence, right?
06:53They're back Sunday. We'll end things in a big way with the Beach Boys the iconic Beach Boys
07:00We had them last year. It was awesome
07:02It was amazing. It was amazing. They enjoyed their time in Williamsburg so much
07:06They actually asked us if they could come back, which is really cool. Yeah, they had such a good experience
07:11We love working with the city of Williamsburg visit Williamsburg and just it's a fun way to have maybe a staycation
07:16If you've never stayed up in Williamsburg before make it a full weekend event and come celebrate with us out there
07:21I think I'm gonna come for the whole week. I think you should do the ABBA thing to grab Fernando and get down there
07:26Let's go. Yeah, I mean the
07:282025 season for the Virginia Arts Festival
07:31Like you just mentioned the Williamsburg live, but then you've got like yo-yo ma coming. You've got Renee Fleming
07:37She's coming to town. It's really the who's who from from a classical music standpoint from a you know world-class artist standpoint
07:44We've really got we're bringing in the Birmingham Royal Ballet at the end of May to do this
07:49We get the world premiere here at in our town of this Black Sabbath the ballet
07:56It's classical ballet. The girls are you know, the girls and boys, excuse me are on on point, but they're dancing to Black Sabbath
08:03So the Virginia Symphony Orchestra is gonna be playing the music. There's a guitarist on stage
08:07It's a really avant-garde way to see classical ballet
08:10So we're hoping that people that maybe have never been to the ballet before
08:14Yeah
08:14And love, you know Black Sabbath and that genre of music will come and experience something different and maybe that music in a new way
08:20That or that's like two totally different ends of the spectrum. So I'm excited to see how that would clash
08:25Yes, do any of the ballet dancers bite the head off a bat?
08:33What is the best place for our listeners to go purchase tickets and to learn more about the Virginia Arts Festival
08:40Yes, our website is is stacked with dates times locations everything you can need at va fest
08:46Oregon we're also really active on social media and our handle is VA arts fest so you can find us there got it
08:53Got it. Allie. Thank you so much. You're the best. Thank you. What a lineup and again
08:58We'll we'll put this whole interview up on our Instagram too, and we'll put it up on Facebook
09:04So it'll kind of live up there and we'll send it over to you and you could put it somewhere amazing
09:09We hope to see you at many events this spring