M E D I A  A D V I S O R Y

February 26, 2018 – Richmond, Virginia: The Richmond Symphony’s Big Tent will anchor the 2018 Southside Community Festival – United by Music with a free performance by the full Symphony planned for Friday, May 18, 2018. The Festival is being organized by a group of community, non-profit and business partners with a goal of strengthening the local neighborhood and by bringing together the diverse populations on the Southside. To that end, festival partners include individuals and organizations representing the local African-American, Korean, Hispanic and Caucasian communities. The site for the festival was chosen at the request of the City’s Department of Parks and Recreation, to boost awareness of the facility and help build/establish programming.

As with the previous Big Tent Festivals, this event has the goal of leaving lasting benefit to the community in the form of funds for music education programs in 8^th and 9^th district public schools.

Through the May 2017 kick-off event, Dia de la Musica, the Symphony and its partners have already provided funds to music programs in eight (8) Richmond Public Schools Elementary Schools in these districts. Each was provided $2,000 for purchase of instruments or other materials, to the discretion of teachers and administrators. Additionally, a pre-kindergarten music program was established at Summer Hill Elementary School. The Symphony is proposing that some of the proceeds raised from the 2018 Southside Festival will be used to fund a second year of the pre-k music program at Summer Hill and provide support for instrument purchase in other district elementary and middle schools, but will again seek guidance from the Southside Community, RPS and the City to make final determinations.

Event Programming

Friday, May 18, 2019 – Richmond Symphony Evening Performance under the Big Tent with Bio Ritmo.

Saturday, May 19, 2019 – Family Day including: musical performances by school bands, church groups, and other local musical acts, a skateboarding competition, a soccer clinic, and a culminating Dance Party under the Big Tent.

Want to play or perform, or know someone who does? Click here to download an application!

For more information and to view the full list of activities and events as they are confirmed, visit: https://www.richmondsymphony.com/community/southside-community-festival-2018-united-music/

In addition to the City of Richmond departments listed above, partners for the Southside Community Festival include: Anthem, Black Restaurant Week, Celebration Church, Faces of Hope, Huguenot High School, JenCare Med, Richmond Public Schools, Sacred Heart Church, The Marcs Agency, Venue Skateboarding, WBTK Poder 1380AM, YMCA, and YouFit.

###

About the Richmond Symphony (www.richmondsymphony.com):

Celebrating its 60th Anniversary Season in 2017/18, the Richmond Symphony is the largest performing arts organization in Central Virginia, and its reach extends throughout the Metro Richmond region and across the Commonwealth from its home downtown in the Dominion Energy Center for the Performing Arts. The organization includes an orchestra of more than 70 professional musicians, the 150-voice Richmond Symphony Chorus and over 260 students in the four ensembles in the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra Program. Each season, more than 200,000 people enjoy its live concerts and radio broadcasts. The Richmond Symphony also provides inspirational and immersive educational programming for over 55,000 students and teachers each year.

Its 40-week season (from September through June, plus an annual July 4^th concert and summer concert series) includes the following series and programs under the headings of Classics, Currents and Community: Masterworks, Pops, Metro Collection, Casual Fridays, LolliPops, Rush Hour, Discovery, Come & Play, Messiah, Big Tent community festivals, and annual contracts with Richmond Ballet and Virginia Opera.  The Richmond Symphony was recently named as one of 21 American orchestras selected as a leader in orchestra innovation by the League of American Orchestras through its Futures Fund Initiative. The Richmond Symphony is partially funded by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.