Tourism Divisions

Virginia Sweepstakes Promotes Live Music, Performing Arts

NEWS RELEASE

May 14, 2008

Virginia Sweepstakes Promotes Live Music, Performing Arts

RICHMOND, Va.  - Do you live for live music, dance, theater? It doesn’t matter if you are standing before a living legend or discovering someone you’ve never heard of before. You want to be a part of it all – right up front. That’s right - you’re a Front Row Fanatic. That’s your “Passionality” and you can revel in it, encore after encore, in Virginia’s new Front Row Fanatic Sweepstakes.

Virginia’s vibrant music scene is front and center in Virginia Tourism Corporation’s special Front Row Fanatic Sweepstakes promotion, running now through July 1, 2008. Those who have a passion for live performance will have a chance to win a Wayne Henderson guitar or a musical trip for two to some of Virginia’s most musical destinations by entering the sweepstakes at www.Virginia.org/musicpromo. 

Six winners will be drawn at random. One grand prize winner will receive a handcrafted Crooked Road Series guitar by master luthier Wayne Henderson, of Virginia’s Crooked Road, whose clients include Eric Clapton.

Four first prize winners will receive three-day, two-night vacations and event tickets for their choice of one of the following music destinations:

• Virginia's Makers & Players at the Blue Ridge Music Center, Galax;
• Hampton Bay Days, Hampton (headlined by Bruce Hornsby and Ricky Skaggs);
• Richmond Folk Festival, Richmond
• Les Misérables at Wolf Trap, Fairfax County

 In addition, the winner of the Virginia's Makers & Players at the Blue Ridge Music Center prize will also receive a handcrafted Crooked Road Series guitar by Anderson/Strickland. One second prize winner will receive a handcrafted Crooked Road Series guitar by Anderson/Strickland. Drawings will be held July 1, 2008.

Virginia’s rich music legacy reaches from the bluegrass roots of the Southwest Virginia mountains to cool jazz in Hampton. The Carter Family, Patsy Cline, Ella Fitzgerald, Dave Matthews, Missy Elliott and even Wayne Newton have all called Virginia home. Music festivals abound throughout Virginia and live music venues – from cavernous Wolf Trap to the Star Barber Shop in Bristol – offer regular performances throughout the year.

Enter online today at www.Virginia.org/musicpromo to fulfill your Front Row Fanatic destiny in Virginia. For more information on how to plan your musical tour of Virginia visit www.Virginia.org or call toll free 1-800-932-5827 for a free Virginia Travel Guide.

                                                        #     #     #

Note to media:

For a complete listing of Virginia’s summer music festivals, please click or go to www.vatc.org/pr/prnews/2008releases/SummerMusicJams.asp

NR621