events

Folk Yeah! Diving Into The Richmond Folk Festival

Jimmy O'Keefe | October 18, 2019

Topics: Brown's Island, events, folk festival, international music, lady bass music, local music, music, pure shea store, Richmond Folk Festival, rock hill bee farm, Studio Two Three, traditional music, vendors

If you’ve ever been skeptical of attending large festivals, the Richmond Folk Festival might just change your mind.

Where else can you find Tuareg guitar, Tuvan throat singing, and honky-tonk all in the same weekend? The Richmond Folk Festival, of course!

The Richmond Folk Festival took place for the 15th time this year from Friday, October 11 through Sunday, October 13. Over 100 performances were held on seven stages throughout downtown Richmond’s riverfront. Between the music, craft vendors, and food trucks, attendees would have a hard time making their way through the weekend without finding something to love.

Despite how ubiquitous the Folk Festival is in local media and on social media each October, this past weekend was my first time visiting. I’ve always had a bit of a distaste for festivals, with their enormous crowds and pandering corporate sponsors. Cliché as it may be, I’ve always had a preference for smaller shows and the intimate and egalitarian environments that they foster.

But I think the Folk Festival this past weekend may have changed my mind about some things. For the first time in my life, I found myself surrounded by word-class musicians of genres of all types, many of which I had no clue existed. Like other festival-goers, I was free to stroll throughout the area, stopping to listen to anything and everything that caught my ear. And I didn’t even have to pay a dime.

Venturing into the Folk Festival from Oregon Hill, the first thing I came across was a parking lot full of food trucks. Children slid down a grassy hillside on pieces of cardboard as festival-goers strolled through the lot, seemingly as hungry for the food as they were for the culture. Crowds cheered as a train passed overhead, complete with the happiest engineer I’ve ever seen waving proudly out the window. Afro-funk could be heard in the distance. The whole scene seemed so jubilant; it had the air of a carnival. Any cynicism I originally had about going to the festival dissipated.

Things only got better and better as I encountered more music during my time at the festival. The diversity of music on display is by far the greatest strength of the Folk Festival. Even just staying put at one stage will give an attendee a roller-coaster ride of sound — take Saturday evening at the Costar Stage, for example. Things got started with Julie Fowlis performing traditional Irish folk songs before giving way to the Syrian dance music of the Aleppo Ensemble. Next, Balla Kouyaté and Famoro Dioubaté undoubtedly introduced the crowd to the unique sound of the balafon, a type of xylophone that uses gourds to produce sound. Huun-Huur-Tu closed out the night with their Tuvan throat singing.

Even if the dizzying number of musical acts at the festival failed to interest an attendee, there was plenty left to do. An entire marketplace was set up, offering just about anything you could think of. There were prints from Studio Two Three and jewelry made of recycled musical instrument parts from Lady Bass Music. You could pick up some soap and lotion from Pure Shea Store. Looking for some honey? Rock Hill Bee Farm had you covered.

The Richmond Folk Festival completely shattered my notion of what a festival could be. The sheer size of it was wild — last year, 220,000 attended, and I’m sure this year was either the same or bigger. With something captivating at every turn, I have no doubt that I will find myself at next year’s Folk Festival, and probably each one after that, too.

Top Photo by Dave Parrish Photography

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Drive Shack Takes a Swing at the Richmond Area

Jonah Schuhart | October 14, 2019

Topics: community service, craft beer, drive shack, driving range, events, Games, golf, golfing, News, nonprofit

With golf balls, grill food, and community service, Drive Shack is setting the par for driving ranges in the River City.

Driving up Route 288 just before it meets I-64, Richmonders have watched an impressive-looking structure grow over the last several months, and awaited their chance to go inside. Drive Shack, the brand-new driving range in Goochland, finally opened its doors last month for all to see — and well over two weeks past its September 20 debut, it’s still crowded with excited visitors.

Located at 1647 Four Rings Drive, Drive Shack is home to three levels of spots for golfers to hit balls into the massive driving range. It’s clear from the establishment’s food, games, and events that it welcomes more than just golfers, with plenty for families and businesses in the city to enjoy.

“We’re just trying to bring a little bit of everything to Richmond,” said General Manager Michael Matley.

The driving range itself is large, taking up more than three-quarters of the facility’s 65,000 square feet. The range is also outfitted with technological attractions, meaning that it can track a golf ball’s flight path, distance, and landing location to display it on screen. The obvious benefit to this is that it allows golfers to more accurately judge where they tend to hit the ball. The range lacks any hills or natural grass, utilizing synthetic astroturf; so while it may be a good place to practice, it’s nothing like the kind of golfing on real grass one would find at a golf course.

The system also comes programmed with games for customers to play. Some are more casual, fantasy-style games for less serious golfers, but there is also the option to play a full 18 virtual holes of golf.

But those aren’t the only games at Drive Shack. The establishment also has a mini-arcade that widens its appeal; what’s more, it serves as an event space, with a full bar and food menu.

“We partnered with Performance Food Group for our food,” said Matley, “so we’re able to use local suppliers.”

Their focus on food also extends to Richmond’s popular craft beer market. Seven local Richmond breweries have beers on tap at Drive Shack, including Hardywood’s special “Drive Shack Golden Ale,” brewed as a special release for its opening.

But Drive Shack’s interest in the Richmond community doesn’t stop with craft beer: members of their team have been working with nonprofit organizations like GoochlandCares since before the establishment opened. Along with participating in community service with their company, Drive Shack’s management team held a food drive for the first ten days the business was open. For every pound of food collected, Drive Shack donated one dollar.

“We’re looking forward to doing that even more,” said Matley. “[We have a lot of] responsibility to give back to the community with our time.”

Culture and Kites at The World Heritage Festival

Jonah Schuhart | September 19, 2019

Topics: Brown's Island, chaka trading co, chris perez, community, Culture, ecuador, events, festival of kites, festivals, manassas, Maryland, News, richmond festivals, world heritage festival

The American melting pot came together in the River City with The World Heritage Festival’s stop at Brown’s Island.

The World Heritage Festival is dedicated to sharing and experiencing a variety of foreign cultures, and it visited one of its new centers for sharing on Brown’s Island in Richmond this past Saturday for a day full of traditional dances, goods from countries like Ecuador and Kenya, and foods from a variety of places around the world.

The World Heritage Festival visits a number of locations yearly in both Maryland and Virginia. After Richmond, they wrapped up their 2019 trip with a visit to the Manassas Museum on September 14.

In addition to being a cultural event, The World Heritage Festival is also paired with the Festival of Kites. So along with the cultural melting pot of vendors and performers came an army of families, flying kites and enjoying the nice weather.

“I thought it was a good opportunity to get out,” said Mike, a Richmond father of two. “We love kites. We love the open doors, so we decided to come out.”

But while some attendees were there simply to soak in some sun and have a good time, many people were there to highlight more serious worldwide issues.

Chaka Trading Co. is a small Ecuadorian-American business that ran a booth during the festival. Their mission is to donate to foreign students in need, and for every Ecuadorian-made product they sell, they donate a backpack.

“Chaka stands for ‘bridge’ in Quichua, which is the indigenous language of Ecuador,” said Chris Perez, the CEO and co-founder of the company. “Our goal with Chaka is to bridge cultures through trade.”

This goal has led the newly-founded company to pursue reciprocal business deals with various countries across the world, including Rwanda, Turkey, and Cambodia. It’s also perfectly in-line with the World Heritage Festival’s goal of sharing between cultures.

“To me, America is a melting pot of cultures, and venues like this give an opportunity for people to show what they bring to the American melting pot,” said Perez.

LOCKN’ 2019: A Family Reunion

Nicholas Daily | September 16, 2019

Topics: Appalachia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Bluegrass, events, festivals, grateful dead, indie, interlockn, lockn, Lockn Festival, nicholas daily, travel, Virginia Tourism

The seventh annual LOCKN’ festival proved that this Blue Ridge Mountain weekend has something for everyone, not just Deadheads and hippies.

Growing up in Lynchburg, Virginia has taught me a lot of things. It made me appreciate the Blue Ridge Mountains, bluegrass music, the beautiful scenery, the diverse environment, and the southern hospitality that Virginia has to offer. Granted, there are things I don’t care for, but as I grow older, I find myself appreciating it much more. I suppose it’s bittersweet.

There’s a certain serenity to the area that I appreciate. There’s nothing like breathing in the mountain air, experiencing the wildlife, walking through the diverse forests, and diving into the winding rivers or local watering hole that quite soothes the soul like it.

The inaugural edition of LOCKN’ — then known as Interlockn’ Music Festival — was announced seven years ago. With great acts such as Furthur featuring Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, The String Cheese Incident, Widespread Panic, Black Crowes, and so many other bands that I loved set to play less than an hour away from my hometown, I couldn’t believe it. It was almost too good to be true.

Before going to LOCKN’, I feared I would be greatly disappointed by the reality not living up to my expectations. If anything, it was the opposite. My experiences through this festival have shaped my life in ways that I can’t even explain. Being around all of my friends, amazing music, and right in my backyard was the recipe for a life-changing experience.

Today, there are not many festivals that make me happier than LOCKN’. Maybe I’m biased because I have lived most of my life in the Blue Ridge Mountains, or because I’m an avid fan of The Grateful Dead and other similar artists, but I have fallen in love with this festival. Plus, getting away from the hustle and bustle of living in Richmond is a nice escape.

But honestly, this festival is not just for Deadheads and hippies. There’s something for everyone. With a vast range of genres and once-in-a-lifetime collaborations, it’s a festival where you can go from rocking out with your elders to having your elders rock out with you. This year’s edition of LOCKN’, held Aug. 22-25, featured acts such as Vulfpeck. This band’s hard-bassline math-rock-esqe witty funky jams sound like what I can best describe as Dick Dale on acid, and they have a playful sarcasm that will get everyone around you dancing and prancing like a unicorn.

Then there was Khruangbin (which in Thai translates to airplane, or literally “engine-fly”), hailing from Texas, who had a go-go-dancing funky Thai rock fusion and were joined by a sit-in collaboration from Phish front-man and guitarist Trey Anastasio. They’ll have you whisked away on an airplane to funky town, and feeling like you’re on the set of a Quentin Tarrentino movie.

There was also St. Paul & The Broken Bones, from Birmingham, Alabama, whose soulful gospel-like brass and retro soul music will transport you into a serendipitous 50’s and 60’s present day. Leader Paul Janeway’s ridiculously awesome stage antics and opera-like vibrato pull you into a performance that rivals an Elton John show.

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong was joined by Cory Wong of Vulfpeck. Mind-melting guitar solos and funk overload had me shaking my booty to their psychedelic jam funk. They were reminiscent of Parliament-Funkadelic with a new flair for stage antics, like stage synchronized swimming with an anecdotal hilarity.

For the nocturnal folks, late night over at the bright dayglo neon Garcia’s Forest hosted acts such as Circles Around The Sun, an instrumental jam band with a wild juxtaposed composure, sounding like Booker T. & The M.G.s and the Grateful Dead’s jams mashed together. On Friday night, Galactic’s funky jazz electronic fusion brings with it a dance party to remember. Saturday had Soullive ft. Infinity Horns, an awesome bluesy soul-jazz and jam fusion.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I could go into all of the amazing performances and collaborations that happened throughout the weekend, but really, for me, the best part of going to LOCKN’ is not just the music — it’s the community. I’ve been going to music festivals for over a decade, and this is the only one where I can both bump into people I grew up with from my hometown that I haven’t seen in over five years, and make new friends that I continue to bump into each year. It brings this familiarity of a family reunion — but one where everyone feels like your family.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about: I lost my wallet on the Saturday night of the festival, and was really distraught by it. Worrying about having to sit in the dreaded DMV, and waste my life away on countless automated phone lines trying to replace all of my credit cards, almost ruined the night for me. But I pushed it out of my mind, hoping that there are good people out there.

The next day, I went down to their Lost and Found, and sure enough, my wallet was waiting for me. It even had the cash and everything else the way I had left it. Inside, a small note was tucked in, saying “Happy Lockn! – Anonymous.” It gave me a reignited hope for humanity.

There’s a certain sense of community at LOCKN’ that you won’t find anywhere else. People are smiling, dancing with each other, helping each other out, and creating lasting memories that leave you eagerly waiting for LOCKN’ to come back around again.

I can’t wait for next year’s family reunion.

Photos by August J. Heisler IV of August J. Photography

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Don’t Have A Cow! Check Out Richmond VegFest This Weekend

Christopher Brown | September 13, 2019

Topics: events, festival, festivals, healthy eating, plant based diet, richmond vegfest, veg fest, vegan, vegetarian, vegfest

This Saturday in Byrd Park, Richmond VegFest will show us all the most delicious ways to eat a meat-free diet.

For 16 years, the Richmond VegFest has been the go-to for vegan and vegetarian food throughout the area. Now with the ever-growing population of the city turning toward more vegan-friendly options than ever, the festival is adjusting to meet the growth of newcomers and OGs who have now gone vegan. Brenda Morris and Mark Ogilvie, the event coordinator and volunteer organizer for RVA VegFest, respectively, are excited for people to embrace the changes that have been made.

This year, the festival will be held at Byrd Park instead of Bryan Park. This will be the first time in the festival’s 17-year run where the event will be hosted at a new location. Morris hopes the new location will be able to accommodate the crowd more successfully than their original spot has in the past couple of years.

“Bryan Park is a gorgeous park and we all loved having it there, but we really ran out of space,” Morris said. “The biggest complaint we would get every year is parking… so hopefully people will have less of a problem parking than they had in the past in Bryan Park.”

The date has also changed this year. Having previously held the festival during the first weeks of June, guests were sometimes hit by extreme temperatures. Morris joked that the temperature had an effected on her ability to eat.

“I’m a big eater, but I don’t wanna eat when it’s 100 degrees out,” Morris said.

So instead of having the festival around early summer, RVA VegFest relocated to the season’s tail end, taking to Byrd Park on September 14. While early September can host its share of 95-degree days, Morris expects this Saturday to have cool temperatures as well as great weather.

VegFest veterans should appreciate these changes, but newcomers are sure to wonder what they can expect from this festival. As with every major festival in town, the food tops the list of things you can look forward to. According to Ogilvie, this year, the festival will have about 34 food vendors, ranging from My Vegan Sweet Tooth to In The Raw Soul Catering.

The diverse food choices will give guests who are trying to eat a more vegan lifestyle a bigger variety of tastes to try. In the days before the festival got started, vegans like Morris couldn’t find this kind of variety. However, she believes vegans and vegetarians pressuring restaurants to have more vegan-friendly options played a crucial role in bringing a variety of new tastes to the meatless food world.

“Over the years, they have seen that there are not just vegans that are interested,” Morris said. “There are people who are trying to eat healthier, that do care about the environment. When they go out to eat, they want to have these options available, too. So that demand has helped drive this growth, and I think it’s going to continue.”

Along with a wide variety of food options, there will be cooking demonstrations taking place throughout the festival. One of the missions of Richmond VegFest is to convince those who are not vegan to consider more of a plant-based diet. According to Ogilvie, the cooking demos will offer both vegans and non-vegans the opportunity to watch chefs craft meals, as well as hear personal stories about what made them go vegan.

Along with these chefs, there will be guest speakers who will tell their stories, and explain why going vegan is good for humans as well as the environment. Nutritionist Derek Tresize, who will also be in attendance, will help attendees plan out a vegan diet.

Plus, there’s fun for both human babies and fur-babies, as the VegFest will have a section for the kids called the Kids Patch. Guests can bring their pets along, too, and Ogilvie recommends getting there early so guests can get the full experience of the RVA VegFest (and, of course, find a parking spot).

“I get a little disappointed that you get all this wonderful food, and you know if you have one big meal, it’s like ‘ugh I can’t eat anything else,’” Morris said. “[At the festival], you can eat more of the food that’s there.”

The Richmond VegFest will take place on Saturday, September 14 from noon to 6 at Richmond’s Byrd Park. For details and directions, visit their website.

Top Image via Richmond VegFest

How To Race Your Dragon: Celebrating Chinese Culture in Richmond

Jimmy O'Keefe | August 15, 2019

Topics: altria, boat races, canoes, carmax, china, Chinese culture, corporations, cultural dances, dragon boat, events, festival, performances, richmond dragon boat festival, richmond events

Despite its corporate influences, Richmond’s Dragon Boat Festival was an entertaining spectacle of Chinese culture by the James.

A little piece of China came to Richmond earlier this month, when the Richmond International Dragon Boat Festival hit Rocketts Landing on August 3. The festival, which has run annually for the past 11 years, featured 41 teams competing on the James alongside a variety of Chinese cultural performances.

Dragon boat festivals originated in China, and are usually held as a cultural festival around the summer solstice. The tradition of racing dragon boats dates back to the 5th or 6th century, and today the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) helps to organize rowing teams and races throughout the world. Every other year, the IDBF hosts a world championship in different cities around the globe.

The journey to my first-ever dragon boat festival began on the GRTC Pulse. With the final eastbound stop being Rocketts Landing, the Pulse was the obvious choice for anyone seeking a quick way to the festival without hopping in a car or sweating on a bike. But for some unexplained reason, my bus stopped at the Shockoe Bottom station; passengers were informed that the bus would not be traveling any further. This was unexpected, but turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the Virginia Capital Trail was just two blocks away. The 10 minute walk to the festival along the river came complete with cool breezes and nice views of Richmond’s skyline.

The trail took me right to the middle of the festival, which was in full swing when I arrived. A voice over the PA system narrated a race in real time as teams cheered on from tents along the river. Meandering lines of attendees led to a handful of food trucks, which provided festival-goers with all of the essentials, from funnel cakes to beer.

Farther down the trail, crowds gathered to watch Chinese traditional dances. Conveniently, the performances largely took place between dragon boat races, so there was no need to pick between one or the other. An announcer — who couldn’t have been over the age of 10 — expertly described what was happening in each dance, and what it meant within the context of Chinese culture. Elegant and informative, the Chinese cultural performances were a definite highlight of the festival.

In the river, long canoe-like boats containing 22 rowers plus a drummer sped through the water. While it was a little difficult to get a great view of the boats because of our distance from shore, it was clear where each of the boats stood in the race. The speed at which the boats traveled was truly impressive; none of the races I witnessed lasted much more than a minute and a half.

Seeing nearly two dozen people working together to propel a massive boat forward is quite a spectacle. This, in combination with the cultural performances, made the festival well worth attending. But throughout my time at the festival, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that things were a little off — in the most corporate way possible. It seems as though many of the teams participating in the races were representatives from big businesses, participating in the festival for team-building exercises. Perhaps I’m being cynical, but in many ways, the Dragon Boat Festival resembled an employee playground for major corporations, who drank beer and took cool photos while superficially signaling support for the community at hand.

Perhaps the festival would have felt less corporate if the teams had come up with names a bit more creative than “Team CarMax” or “Altria East/Spring.” I will admit, though, that “Bankers Aweigh” perfectly captured the corporate/boating feeling of the festival while making me smile.

All in all, the Dragon Boat Festival was a fun way to spend a Saturday. While there are definitely ways the festival could feature better, more in-depth discussions of Chinese culture in the future, watching almost unbelievably long boats race down the James was definitely worth the trip to Rocketts Landing.

Top Photo by Jimmy O’Keefe