FestivALL 2009

Brief History

FestivALL Charleston began because many citizens of the Kanawha Valley have long wanted a comprehensive arts and entertainment festival.

In the winter of 2004, several of these citizens- including Vic Grigoraci, Mary Angel and Joe Wollenberger- met with Charleston mayor Danny Jones to discuss the idea. After that meeting, Mayor Jones invited Mountain Stage producer/host Larry Groce to talk over the possibilities. Groce suggested that it might be a combination of originally produced events and productions already being mounted by local arts groups with Fund for the Arts’ successful Wine & All That Jazz event as the anchor. This was the basic form eventually adopted by those who organized and produced the first FestivALL, June 24, 25 and 26, 2005.

Many uniquely qualified citizens were invited to come together in spring of 2004 for an open Steering Committee meeting where everyone contributed ideas and suggestions. From this meeting an ongoing FestivALL Steering Committee was formed. This Steering Committee template is how FestivALL continues to operate. The Steering Committee has met once a month since spring of 2004 and, although there is a core group of subcommittee chairs and others who are most involved, anyone is still welcome to attend, observe and contribute. It generally takes place in the Mayor’s Conference Room of City Hall at 4 PM on the first Thursday of each month.

Mayor Jones took on the responsibility and leadership of raising funds for the event and continues to be the principal leader of fundraising efforts (now assisted by a director of sponsorships). His leadership and support have been essential to the establishment and growth of the event.

All Arts Included - Production Style

From the beginning, it was the consensus of the Steering Committee that FestivALL should include visual arts, music, theater, dance and film- as well as other events that might be of cultural interest, mixing fine arts and popular arts in venues and locations all over Charleston and including a wide variety of styles and genres.

Many groups and individuals became involved in the pursuit of these goals. Sub-committees were formed with each art genre represented. These sub-committees included representatives from most of the producing and presenting arts organizations in the Kanawha Valley. There was unprecedented cooperation and interaction between these organizations in the planning and producing FestivALL 2005. It created a powerful force larger than the sum of its parts.

Each sub-committee decided what from its genre to present and how to present it. They then produced and/or presented the concerts, performances, exhibits, workshops and talks. Mr. Groce oversaw the all productions and coordinated the overall effort. FestivALL continues this executive director/committee style of operation.

FestivALL directly produces some events, co-produces some and presents some events that are produced by other individuals and organizations.

FestivALL 2005-2008

The result of the work of these committees, organizations and individuals was the initial three-day FestivALL in 2005. Over 120 events and performances were presented. In 2006 there were just as many events and performances but more attendees and, in 2007, the number of days, events and attendees again increased. In 2008 FestivALL became ten days with attendance of over 41,000 at 83 different events featuring 169 performances, exhibitions and presentations by 378 companies, troupes and individual artists.

FestivALL 2009 - June 19-28

FestivALL Charleston 2009 will again be a robust multi-arts festival, a focal point for collaborative efforts among local artists and arts organizations, a major attraction to locals and visitors alike and an economic development tool showcasing the charms and benefits of West Virginia’s Capitol.

For 10 days West Virginia’s capital city will be given over to scores of concerts, exhibitions, and performances in music, art, dance and theater. At times mall stages will dot Capitol Street along with Art Fair tents and larger stages will sprout at Haddad Riverfront Park, Davis Park and Capitol Market. Nationally and internationally known celebrities, as well as many outstanding local and regional artists and performers are all part of FestivALL.

It’s a place and event where you can stroll and be happy, where you can look at art, hear music, watch street performers, and just mingle with people. You never quite know what treat will be up the street, what sight will bring delight.
- Wonderful West Virginia magazine

2009 Line Up of Events (See "Schedule" for all Events and Details)

Again, according to Wonderful West Virginia, “What makes FestivALL joyous and unique is its wildly eclectic line-up of events.” This year they range from a performance by jazz great Terrence Blanchard to the West Side Ice Cream Social and Wiener Dog Races; from Ann Magnuson’s new performance piece, “Back Home Again (Dreaming of Charleston)” at the elegant Clay Center to a ten minute play that takes place on an elevated walkway between buildings; from an art exhibition hung in an alley to the Capitol Street Art Fair down the middle of town and spiced up by belly dancers and stilt walkers, musicians and magicians, jugglers and performing dogs.

Booker T & The MG's with special guest Eddie Floyd headline a Stax 50th Celebration at the Mayor’s Concert on Thursday night, June 25, in the Clay Center. This greatest soul instrumental band of all time features Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame inductees Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper and Donald 'Duck' Dunn.

The City of Charleston will take center stage when native daughter Ann Magnuson- a veteran of over thirty films and hundreds of television and stage turns- presents her new performance piece, “Back Home Again (Dreaming of Charleston)”. Ann describes it as “a loving reminiscence of growing up in West Virginia with all the hopes, dreams, good times, sad times and crazy times as well as notes from the long and winding road that took me from Charleston to New York, Los Angeles and nearly every continent in the world then back home again.”

The Charleston Light Opera Guild, celebrating its 60th anniversary, will be a major player this year. Its production of the recent Broadway musical comedy hit, “Curtains” will be presented five times. The original choreographer, Tony winner Rob Ashford, who began his dance career at Theater West Virginia, will use the new Charleston to NYC direct air link to drop in for two seminars.

Fund for the Arts will again sponsor the ever-popular Blues, Brews & BBQ and Wine & All That Jazz concerts on the lawn at the University of Charleston. Blues, Brews & BBQ will feature Janiva Magness, who is nominated for four Blues Music Awards this year: “Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year”, “Contemporary Blues Album of the Year”, “Album of the Year” and “BB King Entertainer of the Year”. Wine & All That Jazz has tapped the great trumpeter, Terrence Blanchard, who started with Lionel Hampton’s band and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and has gone on to a stellar career as a performer and film composer. Including all the other performers each day, these events will serve up many hours of music, food and fun.

The Capitol Street Art Fair, the second week-end of FestivALL, will showcase over seventy-five high quality artisans showing and selling their wares, with some also demonstrating their work and doing “make and take” projects with children. This juried fair is one of the finest in the state.

Other Visual Art will include an Antique Fair, a coal field photo exhibit by Thorney Lieberman, Art on a Stick, Buswater on the Boulevard (showing works by 8-10 local and regional artists), a “sculpture tour”, Art Walk, many public art installations, and openings at private galleries.

This year’s FestivALL poster, conceived and designed by Alex Morgado, is a symbol of the FestivALL idea. Local artists have contributed designs for letters. Put together, these individual works spell “A City Becomes a Work of Art”. At our opening ceremonies, each letter will be taken to a different part of the city where it will be displayed during the ten days of FestivALL. At the end, they will be gathered and displayed together.

“As exciting as the ‘major events’ are this year,” says FestivALL executive Director Groce, “I’m almost more excited by the local talent, the street performers, the fringe elements. That aspect of FestivALL keeps expanding; it’s where things are the richest, most fertile, where styles come together. You take chances; you may not have a big audience, but it’s what helps an arts festival grow and stay interesting.”

Along with the major productions already described, theater offerings will include a reprise of last year’s site specific play, “Elvis in Charleston” at Capitol Roasters and a new ten minute site specific play to be performed on the overpass that links the Triana Energy Building to the parking garage downtown. The One-Act Play Festival featuring original plays by West Virginia theater companies also returns. Another very exciting addition to theatre presentations is a reading of “How Cissy Grew”, by the original Los Angeles cast including “Desperate Housewives” star, James Denton. The author is Charleston High grad, Susan Johnston, and the play, set in West Virginia, won her the 2008 L.A. Weekly Theater Award for play writing.

Another main event and Charleston favorite, the ‘Smoke on the Water-Charleston Chili Cook-Off’, will take place on West Virginia Day, June 20, and there will be a Gala Dance Performance starring West Virginia’s finest dance troupes on the first Sunday, June 21. A beautiful sternwheeler, The River Queen out of Cincinnati, will be at Haddad Riverfront Park for river excursions throughout FestivALL. On June 26 and 27, it will serve as a free River Taxi.

Besides the major concerts, you can enjoy over 70 hours of free music of many styles on a number of outdoor stages featuring the region’s best talent. And West Virginia’s Cultural Ambassador, Mountain Stage, will present two big shows, the first a blues bash featuring Buddy Guy.

Other great Family Events will include the annual Kanawha County Public Library Street Fair, the West Side Wiener Dog Races & Cruise In, the West Side Old Fashioned Ice Cream Social, FestivALL Comes To Bridge Road, The South Atlantic League All-Star Baseball Game, a massive balloon sculpture in the Charleston Town Center, a skateboard contest, a new all-ages soccer tournament and the opening of the incredible new $17.6 State Museum at The Cultural Center. A Historical House Tour begins this year and the Oral History Project continues.

The ideas behind FestivALL are both very old and very new. Recent economic development research has shown that the arts are vital to the healthy economic growth of any area. But the basic ideas behind FestivALL go back to the very beginning of civic festivals when there was entertainment and celebration in the streets all over a city. That’s what we are aiming for every year.
- Larry Groce, Executive Director