The Virginia Arts Festival is an annual spring festival that brings dozens of performances to Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, and surrounding communities. The festival was established in 1997, and has been bringing world-class artists to Virginia ever since. The festival is a non-profit organization created by the city of Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

 as an incentive to promote tourism to the Hampton Roads area. Every spring, renowned artists from around the world congregate in Hampton Roads to bring world-class music, dance, and theatre performances to the area.

Artists

Every year, the Virginia Arts Festival sponsors events promoting gifted artists and an educational focus to the region. The festival welcomes a diverse selection of artistic talent through the mediums of ballet, classical music, Caribbean and Reggae music, interpretative dance, jazz music, country music, rock music, sketch comedy groups, and more. One of the annual hightlights of the festival is the Virginia International Tattoo

Virginia International Tattoo

The Virginia International Tattoo began in 1997 and is the signature event of the Virginia Arts Festival. Presented annually in Norfolk, Virginia, the Virginia International Tattoo is an exhibition of military bands, massed pipes and drums, military drill teams, gymnasts, Scottish dancers, and choirs...

. The Virginia International Tattoo is a ceremonial performance of military music and showcases "more than 850 performers from around the world in an awe-inspiring presentation of music and might." The Tattoo has become an internationally known event, and draws national and international audiences.

The following are some of the events and artists who have performed or have been involved with past Festivals:

• Ruth Brown
  Ruth Brown
  Ruth Brown was an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, composer and actress, noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and " He Treats Your Daughter Mean".For these...
  
  
• Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
  Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
  The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is a modern dance company based in New York, New York. It was founded in 1958 by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey...
  
  
• Reduced Shakespeare Company
  Reduced Shakespeare Company
  The Reduced Shakespeare Company is an American acting troupe that writes and performs unsubtle, fast-paced, seemingly improvisational condensations of huge topics.- Overview :...
  
  
• Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
  Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
  Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is a contemporary swing revival band from southern California. Their notable singles include "Go Daddy-O", "You & Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight ", and "Mr. Pinstripe Suit". The band played the Super Bowl XXXIII half-time show in 1999.The band was originally formed in Ventura,...
  
  
• Pilobolus (dance company)
  Pilobolus (dance company)
  Pilobolus is a contemporary dance company whose origins are traced to a 1971 Dartmouth College dance class taught by Alison Becker Chase. The group first began performing in October 1971....
  
  
• Virginia International Tattoo
  Virginia International Tattoo
  The Virginia International Tattoo began in 1997 and is the signature event of the Virginia Arts Festival. Presented annually in Norfolk, Virginia, the Virginia International Tattoo is an exhibition of military bands, massed pipes and drums, military drill teams, gymnasts, Scottish dancers, and choirs...
  
  
• Joann Falletta
• Virginia Annual Beer Festival
• Joanne Shenandoah
  Joanne Shenandoah
  Joanne Shenandoah is an Iroquois singer, composer and acoustic guitarist. She is a member of the Wolf Clan of the Oneida Nation, of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. Her music is a combination of traditional songs and melodies with a blend of traditional and contemporary...
  
  
• James Moody
  James Moody (saxophonist)
  James Moody was an American jazz saxophone and flute player. He was best known for his hit "Moody's Mood for Love," an improvisation based on "I'm in the Mood for Love"; in performance, he often improvised vocals for the tune.-Biography:James Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia...
  
  
• Sandy Duncan
  Sandy Duncan
  Sandra Kay "Sandy" Duncan is an American singer, dancer and actress of stage and television, recognized through a blonde, pixie cut hairstyle and perky demeanor...
  
  
• The Guthrie Theatre
• Van Cliburn
  Van Cliburn
  Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. is an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958 at age 23, when he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War....
  
  
• The Russian National Ballet
• The monks of the Drepung Monastery
  Drepung Monastery
  Drepung Monastery ,, located at the foot of Mount Gephel, is one of the "great three" Gelukpa university monasteries of Tibet...
  
  
• Dale Chihuly
  Dale Chihuly
  Dale Chihuly is an American glass sculptor and entrepreneur.-Biography:Chihuly graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Tacoma, Washington. He enrolled at the College of the Puget Sound in 1959...
  
  
• Kelli O'Hara
  Kelli O'Hara
  Kelli O'Hara is an American actress, singer, and songwriter.O'Hara has been nominated for three Tony Awards: for her performance as Clara Johnson in The Light in the Piazza; for her performance as Babe Williams in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of The Pajama Game, where she starred...
  
  
• Bela Fleck
  Béla Fleck
  Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
  
  
• Liza Minnelli
  Liza Minnelli
  Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
  
  
• Birmingham Royal Ballet
  Birmingham Royal Ballet
  Birmingham Royal Ballet is one of the three major ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet and the English National Ballet....
  
  
• Alisa Weilerstein
  Alisa Weilerstein
  Alisa Weilerstein is an American cellist. She was named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow.-Life and career:Weilerstein started playing the cello at age four. She made her debut at age 13 with the Cleveland Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme. As a soloist she has performed with a...
  
  
• Anoushka Shankar
• Republic of Korea Traditional Army Band
• And of course, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra
  Virginia Symphony Orchestra
  The Virginia Symphony Orchestra is an American regional orchestra in the Hampton Roads metro area. The orchestra performs at several venues in Virginia, including Chrysler Hall in Norfolk and the Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News....
  
  

Education

The Virginia Arts Festival is dedicatied to the cultural education of the region. The Virginia Arts Festival WorldClass Education Program, The Rhythm Project, and John Duffy Composers Institute are all programs sponsored by the Virginia Arts Festival. Through the Virginia Arts Festival WorldClass Education Program, Hampton Roads and Southeastern Virginia students benefit by learning from today's great performers and artists through matinees, in-school performances, in-school workshops, and master classes.

The Rythmn Project is a percussion ensemble for talented young artists and it serves fourth through twelfth grade students from the Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach areas.

The John Duffy Composers Institute was founded by the festival in 2005. It is dedicated to the creation of new music by providing young composers the opportunity to create new work and to hear their work performed by professionals. Noted visiting faculty from the 2010 Institute were Libby Larsen

Libby Larsen

Libby Larsen is one of America’s most performed living composers. She has created a catalogue of over 400 works spanning virtually every genre from intimate vocal and chamber music to massive orchestral works and over fifteen operas...

, Fred Ho

Fred Ho

Fred Ho is an American jazz baritone saxophonist, composer, bandleader, playwright, writer, and social activist....

, Ricky Ian Gordon

Ricky Ian Gordon

Ricky Ian Gordon is an American composer of songs, stage musicals and opera. The death of his lover from AIDS inspired Dream True and Orpheus and Euridice...

, and Mark Campbell

Mark Campbell

Mark Joseph Campbell is a former American Football tight end who played for ten seasons in the National Football League for the Cleveland Browns from 1999–2002, the Buffalo Bills from 2003–2005, and the New Orleans Saints from 2006–2008. He was signed by the Browns as an...

.

Sponsorship

The Virginia Arts Festival is a non-profit organization. The VAF operates solely by donations and grants. Corporate sponsors include American Airlines

American Airlines

American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...

, Bank of America

Bank of America

Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...

, Norfolk Southern, Suntrust, The Dalis Foundation, WHRO, and other private businesses from around the region. Individual donations from patrons and volunteers also make up a healthy portion of VAF’s annual income.