Time to brighten it up at beach festivals
Local beaches continue to receive a constant flow of visitors and warmer than usual temperatures make Delmarva even more attractive. In the coastal county of Sussex, the next few days will also see a large number of musicians and their fans coming together to cheer it up.
The Rehoboth Beach Autumn Jazz Festival is back in full force this week. As with many other events canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, crowds are expected to make up for lost time.
The four-day festival was set to kick off with Blood, Sweat & Tears presenting their catalog of jazz-rock hits at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, October 14 at the Performing Arts Theater at Cape Henlopen High School in Lewes ($ 62 to $ 125).
As is tradition with the festival, dozens of small restaurants from Dewey Beach to Lewes will feature local musicians, while larger venues will feature touring artists. The latter includes saxophone favorite Boney James performing a sold-out show at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Bassist Gerald Veasley, who wowed locals last month during an appearance at the Freeman Arts Pavilion in Selbyville, will perform an afternoon show at the Rehoboth Convention Center at 4 p.m. Saturday ($ 59 to $ 89) .
Another famous saxophonist, Mindi Abair, will perform a pair of concerts accompanied by her backing band The Wild Hearts on Saturday at 4 p.m. (full) and 9 p.m. ($ 59 to $ 82) inside the Rusty Rudder in Dewey. .
The annual closing jam session, which will take place inside the rudder at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, was also sold out in advance.
A concurrent event that has no affiliation with the aforementioned festival is True Blue Jazz, which is celebrating its ninth year this week.
With an emphasis on more traditional jazz, it presents music at a dozen venues in Rehoboth and Lewes (also between Thursday and Sunday October 14-17).
One of those locations is The Pines restaurant on Baltimore Avenue in downtown Rehoboth, where True Blue already features jazz on the first Wednesday of every month throughout the year. Numerous True Blue concerts are also scheduled in the Ballroom of the Boardwalk Plaza Hotel (on the Rehoboth stage).
Heading South In Berlin, the Ocean Downs Casino continues its “Rocktober” tribute concert series on Friday evening, October 15th. The Wanted DOA group will honor Bon Jovi at 8 p.m. ($ 20). On recent Fridays there have been tributes to Fleetwood Mac and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.
In a week’s time, the annual Ocean City Tribute Festival kicks off Thursday, October 21 (and runs through Sunday, October 24) at OC’s Fountainebleu Resort. As usual, dozens of singers will honor Elvis Presley.
While most packages include hotel rooms, there will be a limited number of tickets for daily events ($ 19 to $ 99).
We will have more on this festival next week.
Email Roger Hillis at [email protected]
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