Join us on March 21st and 22nd, 2020 for the 35th Annual Irish Festival!
As always, there will be live local music, traditional Irish food prepared by St. Patrick’s Church along with many neighborhood restaurants, vendors, and local craftspeople, Irish beverages, kids games, Irish and Highland Dance, and Bagpipers!
DATES:
Saturday, March 21: 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Sunday, March 22: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
FREE!
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery & RVA Magazine’s HALLOWEEK is our week long celebration of all Halloween-inspired events, music, and parties in RVA. For over a decade now, we have celebrated one of our favorite holidays in Richmond — for an entire week, because Halloween’s too creative and fun a holiday to be confined to just one day. Since our first Halloweek over 10 years ago, it has grown to be one of our biggest event lineups each year, packed to the brim with events for all ages!
HALLOWEEK 2019 begins October 24th at Hardywood, and keeps going ’til the big Parade and Rooftop Party at Graduate Rooftop on Wednesday Oct. 31st! Hardywood has been an amazing supporter of RVA Magazine and partner in Halloweek for many years. Not only do they make amazing brews, they also provide multiple events for the whole family, to help make Halloweek truly special.
We kick off Halloweek this year on Thursday Oct 24th at Hardywood, with their Haunted Food Truck Court. Its family and dog friendly with great food trucks, music, games, a Red Vein Army selfie station, and a special new brew just for Halloweek. Make sure and pick up Hardywood’s Farmhouse Pumpkin around town and at our events, as our Official Halloweek Beer this year.
On Saturday Oct 26th, Beauvine Burger Concept’s Nightmare on Plum St. returns as a outdoor Halloween festival with some of the best bands in the area — including Sleepwalkers, Minor Poet, Holy Roller, Heartracer, and more! We will be hosting a cash costume contest at this event, during breaks between bands. Make sure and get your tickets, as this event is one you don’t want to miss out on.
New for 2019, we’ve started working with Red Vein Army, to provide a real haunting flavor for this year’s Halloweek. They will be at a few of our events giving out tickets to their big haunted attraction at Hanover Vegetable Farm. And in fact, we have something special for local people this year: Celebrate RVA Halloweek with Red Vein Haunted House! October 27th is officially RVA Magazine night at Red Vein, and you can save $4 on tickets with the code “RVAMAG“. Coupon good for tickets on 10/27 ONLY, so don’t miss out! Tickets available at Red Vein’s website: redveinhaunt.com.
Everything wraps up on Halloween night with the 14th annual Halloween Parade by All The Saints Theatre Company, followed by a big Rooftop Party at Graduate Richmond, for The Haunted Carnival Halloween Party!
Catch all the Halloweek action at our instagram, @rvamag, and be sure to use the hashtag #RVAhalloweek2019 for your own pics!
Join us: http://rvahalloweek.com/
Scroll down for a complete listing of this year’s Halloweek festivities!
THURSDAY, October 24th –
💀 HALLOWEK KICKOFF AT Hardywood Park Craft Brewery FREE!
Haunted Food Truck Court 5pm -9pm (Kid & Dog Friendly)
💀 We’ll be releasing a ghoulish new brew!
💀 All the food trucks will have their most frightful menu items for you to choose from!
💀 Live music from Geek RVA, an awesome Smashing Pumpkins cover band, and Minimum Balance.
💀 Devilish selfie station and ticket giveaways from Red Vein Army
💀 Come dressed in your most hair-raising disguises!
Illiterate Light w/ Twen & Grayling Skyy at Richmond Music Hall–
Music at 8pm $12 ADV, $15
FRIDAY, October 25th –
The Broadberry – Nightmare on Emo Street: A Big A** Halloween Party w/ Throwing Back Sunday! 9pm / $10
Costume Contest: $50 prize!
Haunted Photobooth & Face Painting
The Camel – WRIR Presents: Majjin Boo “Go Between” Album Release Show – 8pm Doors, 9pm Music / $5
WRIR 97.3 fm Richmond Independent Radio& Egghunt Records
5 bands, 100% of ticket sales go directly to supporting everyone’s favorite local radio station, WRIR.
🎺 Funk O Ween at Bingo Beer Co FREE
FUNK PIMPS – Reinhold & Dice. Funky tunes on the Patio of Bingo Beer, Halloween themed funky music of all types.
🌈 Scary-Oke 2019 at Diversity Richmond
LGBTQ Diversity Event – 7pm – 10pm FREE
Diversity Richmond’s largest Costume and Karaoke Gaylalala is even bigger, with $2000 in CASH prizes for most amazing costume, best karaoke performance, and grand combo costume-karaoke. (Individual and group entries welcome) AND, it’s FREE!
SATURDAY, October 26th –
👹 OUR BIG WEEKEND PARTY at Beauvine Burger Concept
Beauvine Burger Concept presents Nightmare on Plum Street with SLEEPWALKERS, Minor Poet, Deal Casino, Heartracer, Holy Roller, Kid is Qual, and Justin Golden & The Come Up.
👹 Enjoy all-day live music, games, Tarot reader, raffle, photobooth, and a BIG COSTUME CONTEST with a CASH grand prize!
👹 Stay tuned for details including set times and costume contest
Free 2pm – 5pm (Kid & Dog Friendly)
After 5pm: $8 Pre / $12 at door
15th Annual Richmond Zombie Walk 1pm – 4pm
Benefiting the American Cancer Society. The FAMOUS ZOMBIE WALK IS BACK AGAIN. Be a part of the horde!
*Check event page for details / costume contests / plans
HARYDYWOODS Trickery Release 1pm – 10pm
Release and party of TRICKERY // 13.5% ABV
An imperial milk stout aged 10 months in apple brandy barrels for a smooth apple brandy finish. Warm caramel, blackstrap molasses, and chocolate-covered cherries. Trickery? No, it’s a treat! At both Hardywood Richmond and Hardywood West Creek.
SUNDAY, October 27th –
👻 RED VEIN Haunted House‘s “RVA”DAY. We are working with Red Vein Army to bring you a discount special for Sunday night, October 27th. Order tickets at http://redveinarmy.com/ USE PROMO CODE: RVAMAG. Good only for Sunday the 27th.
Trunk or Treat at Hardywood West Creek Benefiting SCAN
12pm – (Kid Friendly)
Trunk or Treat is free to attend. All ages welcome! Trick-or-treating fun without crossing streets or worrying about traffic. Family-friendly fall activities, food trucks, and a raffle for a chance to win a few awesome prizes! Hardywood West Creek will be donating a percentage of sales from the event to Greater Richmond SCAN.
Pints & Pumpkulents at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery
*Special Event / 1pm-3pm $35 (check event page)
In this hands-on workshop, we will teach you how to make and care for your pumpkin succulent and keep it healthy and happy, indoors or outdoors. You’ll learn how succulents can help remove toxins, oxygenate the home, and even brighten your mood.
Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House presents Alex Jonestown Massacre, Loser’s Bracket, BarryWhite Hanson, Mad Abbey 9 PM – 12 AM / $5
🌈 River City Roll’s Deadly Drag Halloween Ball
LGBTQ Pride Event – 6-10pm $10 adv / $15 Door
Join us Sunday, October 27th for our Deadly Drag Halloween Ball! Five Queens will hit the stage, and the floor we’re sure, as they pull out all the stops to make this year’s Halloween weekend one to remember! A portion of proceeds and tips will benefit Virginia Pride.
MONDAY, October 28th –
🍺13th Annual Hallobeer ELVIS EDITION! 9pm FREE
One of our favorite events yearly at The Answer Brewpub.
🍺 This year, in honor of Quy Pham, we present the music of Elvis by Mekong Xpress & The Get Fresh Horns.
🍺 Costume contest for Best Elvis and Best costume overall, food and beer specials. ❤️ #Diabloforever
Elwood Thompson’s Spooky Screenings: Ghostbusters
12pm (Kid friendly movies Daily till Halloween)
Why limit the fall festivities to just one day? We’ve got something special leading up to Halloween, culminating with our annual Costume Contest for employees and the community alike!
TUESDAY, October 29th –
Adult Mom, Big Baby & Deau Eyes at Gallery 5 – 10/29
8pm $10 Adv / $12 Door
ADULT MOM returns to Richmond, taking to the GALLERY 5 stage this October bringing their queer-indie-bittersweet-romantic-pop-sounds on TINY ENGINE back to RVA!!!
Revenge of the How To Halloween Makeup Workshop
*Special event / 6-8pm $25
Includes workshop instruction + materials PLUS a TO-GO makeup kit with instructional handout so you can execute the most terrifying makeup on the block for Halloween!
Ellwood Thompson’s Spooky Screenings: Hocus Pocus at 12pm
WEDNESDAY, October 30th –
Ruston Kelly with Donovan Woods at Richmond Music Hall
7pm / $15 https://www.rustonkelly.com/
Russian Circles with Windhand at The Broadberry
7pm /$18 ADV, $20 DOS https://russiancirclesband.com
Ellwood Thompson’s Spooky Screenings: Coraline at 12pm
THURSDAY, October 31st – HALLOWEEN!!
👺Haunted Carnival Rooftop Halloween Party
Join us on Halloween night at Byrd House for carnival-themed frights and delights including live music with Dj Just Different Bee, costume contest, specialty spooky drinks and complimentary photos w/ Just Snap Me Photobooth from 7 – 11 pm in the lobby*.
100% of ticket sales will benefit Graduate Hotels’ 150K Payoff in partnership with Scholly, a scholarship search app dedicated to student success.
😻 Richmond’s 14th Annual Halloween Parade- October 31, 2019
presented by ALL THE SAINTS THEATER COMPANY. 7pm
Meet at Monroe Park, check event page for more details on how to be involved!
🎃 Ellwood Thompson’s 𝙃𝘼𝙇𝙇𝙊𝙒𝙀𝙀𝙉 𝘾𝙊𝙎𝙏𝙐𝙈𝙀 𝘾𝙊𝙉𝙏𝙀𝙎𝙏
October 31st, 7AM – 9PM
$100 Ellwood’s gift card to 1st place winners! Categories are ‘Best Steward Costume’ and ‘Best Customer Costume,’ chosen by popular vote on Facebook November 1st – 4th.
Thank you to our sponsors:
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery
Beauvine Burger Concept
Graduate Richmond
Capital Ale House
Ellwood Thompson’s
River City Roll
RED VEIN ARMY
Broadberry Entertainment Group
The Answer Brewpub
The Camel
Richmond Zombie Walk
VA Pride
Gallery 5
Bingo Beer Co
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
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
Richmond’s best one-day music festival! A full day of music, food, drinks, crafts, and JAM. June 15th from 12pm-10pm at Mayo Island.
Jam Sandwich is bringing you fresh-baked jams hot out of the oven this year! Come to our “secret spot” on Mayo Island, in the middle of Richmond, for a whole day full of friends, good times, and great jams. Live music all day from 12-10pm, vendors, food trucks, beer and cocktails!
With Memorial Day Weekend in the books, summer in Richmond is officially here!
To celebrate the liveliest season in the River City, RVA Magazine is proud to release the RVA Summer Field Guide: Our take on a solid season to get outdoors and enjoy the city’s best, out and on the streets today.
Beat the heat and humidity, and grab a first-edition copy of your new summer go-to guide. With a classic outdoor field guide feel, the RVA Summer Field Guide brings all the sunny-day feels and boozy ideas to make the most of your days.
The guide is packed with upcoming music events, summer festivals, guides to Richmond nightlife, summer beers to look for, the best watering holes in the state, plenty of planned trips for students and families alike, and many more. Oh, yeah — and we also have quite possibly the best scavenger hunt in existence.
While it’s impossible to include everything and everywhere that make summer fun so great in this state, what comes with the RVA Summer Field Guide is a quinnessential start to exploring the city we all call home. Pick up a free copy today at any of our amazing vendors and local hot spots in town, and be sure to grab one before they run out — we guarantee you’ll be glad you did!
You can check out a PDF of the guide online below. Check our Instagram and Twitter for a special release at Hardywood tonight, or check any of the spots listed below to get a copy of your own.
View the full RVA Summer Field Fuide here!
Grab yours before they run out! The RVA Summer Field Guide can be found now at these locations:
Hardywood
Mekong
The Answer Brewpub
Ellwood Thompson’s
Check this weekend for more issues at these locations:
Colonial Shooting Academy
The Boathouse
En Su Boca
Beauvine Burger
River City Roll
Fire & Hops Pizza Co.
Rva Paddle Sports
The Poe Museum
Taylor’s Barber Shop
Quirk Hotel
Graduate Hotel
Can Can Bar
Solita
Little Saint
Kabana
Plan 9
World of Mirth
Chop Suey
Havana 59
Capital Ale House
Station 2
Union Market
Legend Brewery
Strangeways Brewing
Triple Crossing Beer
Väsen
The Veil Brewing Co.
Ardent Craft Ales
Bingo Beer Co.
Three Notch’d RVA Collab House
Canon & Draw
Basic City Beer
Isley Brewing Company
Tang Biscuit
The Hoff
Circuit Arcade Bar
Black Heath Meadery
Final Gravity Brewing Co.
Garden Grove Brewery
Tabol
Stone Brewing Richmond
Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery (downtown)
Champion Brewing RVA
Stawberry Street Market
The Hop
Black Hand Coffee
Lamplighter Coffee
Gallery 5 (First Fridays)
*Along with other local hot spots, markets and restaurants.
