Well first off let me tell you from someone who came in on day 3 at the very end of the fest I had…read moreabsolutely no idea what I was walking into. I thought this must be an interesting event. I walked in about 30 min into the event and they had LED hula hoops, scarves with colors blowing, random hammock chairs, a town like horse bar, I mean there was a lot. When I mean a lot. .. there is a lot. The one thing you must know is first off its from what I gather a celebration of life, earth, music, spirit of human connection, and just a transcendental experience. Don't come in looking for a list of activities, you have to just be. People would flock in crowds from one spot to another there would be a mini performance, one tent had a wickedly awesome shadow puppet storytelling. At first glance I was mind blown at the intricacy of story and shadow. That was wildly sweet to look at! The food trucks were just 2 and I had the chicken platter and the food was good the baklava was melt in your mouth yummy. The grand finale took me away as there was a giant moon puppet and sun puppet, fish, a swirling lantern show, shadow imagery, it was sweet looking! Please come with an open mind I had to let go walk around, not ask Qs, and take it for what it was. The ladies that would walk song and dance were my favorite they would stop walking do some poses and continue walking in unison. The lantern head people were cool to check out, and the dancing routine in front of the bar with the fairies was in great spirit and energy! Can't wait to see more next year! BTW the band DJP & Mr T a local band played the crowd well at the end and selled merch near stage. I met the lead singer she was very sweet!

Went to this event this past weekend. It was not as crowded as other festivals in town point park…read moreand is limited to only a certain section of the park. It is geared more towards families but it was enjoyable for adults too. They had a Shakespeare rap battle and a performance of Prince's Purple Rain among other great performances. They also involved audience participation. I was pleasantly surprised this was a nice event!

I am a huge fan of the Universoul Circus! I believe myself and my family have attended since 2012…read more This year the location was outside of the Hampton Convention Center than its usual location, outside of Military Circle Mall (The Galleria). In my opinion, the vibe was a bit different this time around. I am usually hyped about all the acts from start to finish. My favorite act, which returned this year, the motorcyclists, daredevils ... they amaze me every single time! Only three cyclists appeared this year, but the act was still super thrilling! A few new acts made an appearance this year... some were good while others were just OK. Nevertheless, this circus is pretty much the only well known circus that is still in existence. The Universoul Circus comes to the area faithfully. I recommend you check it out next year or in an area nearby. They will usually run the circus for 5 to 7 days. And this year, the show at Hampton started July 31st and ended August 4th. The prices can range from $10 to $30... keep your eyes peeled for special offers going forward. Parking... plenty. Restrooms are located outside the big top. And yes, the circus is under a huge tent... outside... under the BIG TOP it's air conditioned and super comfy. There is almost not a bad seat, but I do recommend section G. A great family outing if you love a good time. Have fun and enjoy life :)

My family and I went to the Chesapeake Jubilee for the first time last weekend and we had an…read moreenjoyable time. Since I hadn't been to a carnival in a while, I was surprised to see that the tickets were stored digitally on a card that they give to you. I actually loved the convenience of not having tickets all over the place lol. We rode about two rides which were a lot of fun. The ride operator simply scanned the card for our tickets and that was it! Gone are the days of having to count out the tickets for the rides lol. We then decided to grab something to eat. I remember carnival food being delicious and worth every penny but we ordered a cheese burger, cheesesteak, sausage and peppers and fries and the burger was extremely small, the cheesesteak was finished in 3 bites and the sausage was the size of a hot dog. The food was disappointing for how much we paid. The funnel cake and fried Oreos were great though. The best part of the carnival was definitely the delicious Turkey leg that we all enjoyed. Since my daughter isn't a big fan of fireworks, we decided to leave before they started but overall, it was a fun family outing. Side note: To avoid paying the $10 parking fee, we parked at a nearby school but we walked close to a mile to get to the carnival so definitely where comfortable shoes if you plan on taking that route next year. :)

Great time! Great vibes! Amazing food and fun rides! Chesapeake Jubilee we had a blast!read more

Apologies as I've been sitting on this draft for a few weeks. The 2014 Virginia Beer Festival was…read moreexcellent. The weather was beautiful and of course the event was held at Town Point Park right on the water. You couldn't ask for a better day at all. My only real complaint would be the lines to get in. They were initially long and there was little clarity as to which line you should be in until you got up close to the gate. This was especially true if you were a VIP or had Will Call tickets. Once the lines got moving everyone that was paying at the gate got in right away, while Will Call people who had paid online so they wouldn't have to wait ended up standing in line for quite a while. The reason for this, the 'pay at the gate' had about 8-10 line slots while 'Will Call / VIP' had 2 lines. One line for A-M and another for N-Z. I would guess a 3rd of the crowd was Will Call so that just didn't work. They opened up more lines eventually and that made a big difference. I hope next year they expand the "Will Call" to more slots. On with the beer. By god there was a ton of it. Almost 100 breweries from around the world were represented this year. Upon entry you could see the main row of tents and each tent had about 4 choices per. While the lines were long, they went fast for the most part and I was able to sample quite a bit of the vendors. There were also other brewers off to the left of the entrance. In addition there was plenty of food to choose from. I had some corn dogs... Mmmmm and went back for more samples. All in all a great way to spend part of the afternoon. You couldn't ask for a better weather either. It was literally a perfect temperature for an outdoor event of this type. I can't wait until next year.

For $35 ($15 for non-drinkers) you can come here and they'll give you a little glass. Then all the…read morevendors will put beer in your glass. This is basically the greatest thing ever. As much as you can handle! Great local and national brews! Homebrew is also here giving some basic classes, tips and holding home brewing Q&A. Getting here early is not necessarily the best thing as the lines tend to be long early on, but in the last few hours once all have had their fill, the lines are virtually nonexistent. Good way to spend a few hours, great job Norfolk!

Harborfest Norfolk during Sail 250 and Juneteenth weekend was absolutely unforgettable! The entire…read morewaterfront felt electric with celebration, history, and community coming together in such a meaningful way. The food and drinks were a highlight. I had a crab cake that was genuinely one of the best I've ever had, fresh, flavorful, and perfectly prepared. It alone is reason enough to come back next year. Plus every drink stop was sold by volunteers that the proceeds went back to the local community. Shout out to the Orange Crush Tent with proceeds going to the animal shelter.  The live music lineup on Saturday was phenomenal. Fitz and the Tantrums absolutely brought the energy, and The Last Bison, Paper Aliens, and Kill Devil Disco all made for an amazing day of nonstop entertainment. Every set added something different and kept the crowd engaged from start to finish. Between the food, music, fireworks, Sail 250, and Juneteenth programming, it was the perfect summer festival experience. Can't wait to see what next year brings!

Always a fun and family safe event, love coming out to see the tall ships. What a treat! The kiddos…read morelove it

It was time for the third annual History Bites during Battle of Hampton Roads Weekend at Mariners'…read moreMuseum, and I was excited to meet Honest Abe and eat some good food! This was a special event, combining food with history. "Top restaurants and caterers in Hampton Roads will compete in a food-tasting event of historic proportions. The contestants will prepare a selection of traditional 19th century dishes representing the North, the South and the Navy, preparing their best interpretations of dishes" (http://www.marinersmuseum.org/event/history-bites/). The details: The ticket got you into the event, allowing you to eat as much as you wanted (Piggy Town--woohoo!) and a ticket for one alcoholic drink (beer, wine or spiked lemonade). You were free to walk around, table to table, trying all of the selections from the contestants. There were some tables -some real large, sit-down tables and some small, tall tables for standing- but they were filled up pretty quickly. I was alone, but if I had a partner, I would have kept one person at a table, and the other go around and grab food. Once you finished eating all of the items, you needed to pick just ONE selection on the ballot. The Goose Grey- The first item I tried was The Goose Grey's Grandma's Bean Soup and Plum Cobbler. Unfortunately, these were probably some of my least favorites. The "soup" needed seasoning real bad and the cobbler was dry and disappointing. Not a good start to the event. Soup/Cobbler 2*/3* Harpoon Larry's- Fried Clams and Apple Custard were from Harpoon Larry's and those clams were awesome! They served them on top of a lemon aioli and in a sea shell--so cool! Delicious and one of my top three favorites. The Apple Custard ended up being kind of like a shot, and added some brandy in a cup. It was okay, but not my thing. 5*/3* Ms. Mary's Catering- To Make Olla (a Spanish-type soup) and Common Cheesecake were next up for my taste buds. The soup was good, had several types of meat, good flavor with some spice and sweet, and overall was tasty. The cheesecake didn't really work for me. Something about it had an odd flavor. Olla/Cheesecake 4*/3* Smoke BBQ- To Roast a Pig and Johnnycakes and their plate reminded me of Thanksgiving. The pork came out like pulled pork without the sauce--moist and good flavor. It was served with some stuffing that I liked, and a dense Johnnycake, drizzled with molasses. I really enjoyed their plate, and probably was my third favorite restaurant overall. 4* The Catering Co.- 1845 Chicken Salad and Same Potatoes Salad according to the ballot, but they also served some baked beans with it. The salad tasted like deviled eggs--kind of different, but I liked it. The Potatoes Salad had no flavor, but the beans were really good. Chicken Salad/Potatoes Salad 3*/2* The Chamberlin- Fried Salt Pork and Trifle were two of my top three favorites. The Fried Salt Pork reminded me pork belly--nice and crispy and to die for! It was served on top of puréed butternut squash and topped with an apple slaw. The presentation was beautiful and the taste was outstanding. It was the only item I went back for seconds. The trifle was delicious, too, and easily the best dessert there. Pork/Trifle 5*/4* Encore- Chicken Salad and Bounce--I'm sorry to say that I only tried Bounce. I was getting full at that point and the chicken salad didn't seem appealing to me. But, I'd heard that Bounce was amazing and I needed to try it. It was like a cherry cordial, warm and inviting. Very good. 4* Fin- Clam Chowder and Sweet Potato Biscuits was my last trip to the tables. While the "chowder" was very flavorful, it didn't seem chowder-like to me. Not thick at all. Maybe they tried to thin it out and stretch it? It also was cold--much like most of the items and I like my food hot. I understand that is probably difficult--just sayin'. The biscuit was heavy, but I'm comparing to Blue's amazing sweet potatoes that I tried last week. 3*/3* Schlesingers/Opus 9- Macaroni Pudding and Ginger Beer were their entries, and sadly I didn't try either. Their table was the only one I didn't get to visit. I am not a big fan of rice/bread pudding and the idea of Macaroni Pudding did not excite me. However, I did talk to a lady and it was her favorite of the night. Now I wish I had tried it! My Picks: 1st The Chamberlin's Fried Salt Pork 2nd Harpoon Larry's Fried Clams 3rd The Chamberlin's Trifle Honorable Mention Smoke BBQ's To Roast a Pig I had a great time, and can't wait to find out who the winners were since I left before they were announced. Overall, it was a fun event, but it was very crowded in there! Too bad they couldn't use a larger room and spread out. All of the contestants were fabulous dealing with the people, and so cool to be held at a museum. Huzzah!

I won tickets for the 2019 History Bites event and am so glad that I attended. I tried about 97% of…read morethe dishes and loved 75% of them. That's a lot of math lol. My favorite item, by far, was the lemon pudding. It tasted like a lemon cornbread with whipped cream. It was so good, I tried to find a recipe on Pinterest- with no luck. Other dishes that stood out were the asparagus soup (tasted like a cream of broccoli) and an apple fritter which changed my WHOLE understanding of what a good fritter should taste like (this is a compliment). Usually fritters I've tried are hard and overly sweet. The texture of the fritter was more like a donut and absolutely divine. As you can tell from my photo, the best part of the night was taking a pic with Abe! Had a great time and hope to attend next year.

The food vendors are definitely on their business out here. I do appreciate the diversity of the…read moreselections to choose from. Vendors did mention having to go up on prices because SITW get paid off the top but every vendor gets plenty of exposure and the money is there especially for this 3-day festival. I like that they had BAR vendors that had options of non-alcoholic beverages as well as alcohol. Doodles was passing out free ice cream. White Claw also had tasting stations on top of being able to purchase from their tent or vendors that sold it separately (first time trying White Claw) and I buy it again. With 5% alcohol it was my only alcoholic beverage the entire festival, light flavorful taste and nothing to have you buzzing. Like all events there's pros and cons and takeaways. I hated the shuttle service issues 2nd day of festival. Virginia Beach provided school buses and their were contracted private shuttle busses. 3-day shuttle passes were $50 per person. They give you a wrist band you have to wear the entire weekend on top of your SITW wrist band...their were huge groups of people being corralled like cattle into a tight space when trying to get via the maze of the makeshift ride separators to catch the shuttles. No order what so ever...a lot of hurry up and wait. Had us all waiting more than an hour confined trying to make it to the actual shuttles. Mind you they were only supposed to be available up to 60 mins after the final show, so that caused lots of anxiety and panic. Better contingency planning should be done to avoid this issue in the future. Concept was good, just a tad poorly executed. Personally preferred the private shuttles over the school buses due to comfort and actual individual space. Truly thankful for this festival overall for a 3-day music festival it's well worth it. Some of my favorite acts were 3rd Eye Blind,WALE, Jasmine Sullivan, SWV, Summer Walker, Pharrell & Friends and many others. As I rest up for the final day I'm still excited and ready to take in the music for its last day. Enjoyed the drone show also. Can appreciate the drones better than fireworks and feel thats better for people who have PTSD to loud explosive noises. Thank you Pharrell for bringing something of this magnitude to Hampton Roads and continuously bringing exposure, talent and money into Hampton Roads. (We Love You). There's also been no major issues when it comes to behavioral or disturbances. Huge Plus factor to take away. Appreciate Virginia Beach police also for being on top of directing traffic and providing eyes from the roof toops to the ground. Grateful for all emergency EMT people that aided in making this event a success as well. Pack lots of patience and remember to be good to one another. Thank you. "SITW!!!!"

One word.... AMAZING!!!…read more The performances, logistics, the vibe, and that "thing" in the water made this festival a huge success thanks to Pharrell and his vision! There were so many elements of surprises throughout the festival in term of the performances that kept us in suspense. So here's a recap of my experience: TRAFFIC: Traffic was actually pretty good moving in and out of the Oceanfront. Even though I stayed at a hotel for the weekend, I still left the Oceanfront a couple of times and again no issues with traffic. TICKETS: General Admission- On the beach, no chairs or shade provided. There's plenty of food vendors to choose from. VIP - A separate entrance from GA that's on the board walk with stadium bleachers along with dedicated food vendors for the VIP section. A bracelet is to be worn during the 3 day event and it cannot be taken off. If the bracelet looks to have been tampered with, entry may be denied. For those who didn't get a ticket, there were still events free and open to the community. FOOD: There were many food options available from local restaurants to choose from such as Asian, Thai, Caribbean, American, Mexican, beer, wine and free water stations. CROWD: I love seeing all race, age and gender having a great time partying. I whined up singing and dancing with so many other party goers because we were all there to have a good time! There were No fighting and everyone was respectful. BUT when there's a popular artist performing that everyone wants to see, the crowd gets real tight to get closer to the front row and at this point no one is respecting any personal spaces. You can be literally on someone's back and someone will be on yours! So if you can't stand crowds, this isn't for you! I even had a moment of anxiety and I had to move to the back where it was less crowded and just watched on the Jumbotron. There were people passing out because of the heat and not keeping themselves hydrated. But with free water stations throughout the festival it can be avoided. Medics were on standby and did a great job getting to the people. PERFORMANCES: Pharrell pulled off this event so successfully! He brought top artist to this inaugural event. And that element of surprise I was talking about earlier was artists like Jay Z who came to the stage to preform!! Also the scheduled artists also brought their own surprise guests! And the crowd goes WILD!!!! VA needed this music festival and I am so glad I was there to experience it. I am so ready for SOMETHING IN THE WATER 2!!!

I had the lovely opportunity to attend the Fall Town Point Park Wine Festival, and let me tell you…read moreI finally understand the hype! I've had friends go in previous years, and this year was my turn. Now that I've experienced it for myself, I can say I'll be at every wine festival next year ,spring and fall included! As someone still expanding my wine palate, this was such an amazing experience. The vendors were sweet, knowledgeable, and so patient, There were a two wines Im obsessed with one that tasted exactly like a green tea shooter (I was sold on that one!), and another combo where the vendor mixed a strawberry wine with a chocolate red wine to make a chocolate-covered strawberry flavor

I gotta tell you if you think you're gonna run outta wines to try you won't. I've gone for both…read morethe spring and fall one. Boy oh boy. The best things I can tell you are vendors are happy to serve you, you might wanna get there early, and either get a group and buy a table to sit or a hotel near by for a lil mid wine fest nap lol. TRUST I get out there, try my wines, then wake up from my nap with money in hand to buy the best ones!! Def something fun to do and since all the wines are local? It ain't nothing but a fun day or even weekend trip to go grab a bottle at the winery you couldn't stay away from. I give it high ranks. Oh and of course? The food good too. Plenty of food trucks out there with a lot of different options. I usually just get a bucket of fries from one vendor (and if you keep the bucket it's like 4$ refills anytime they're over there) and then try something new I didn't try last time. This past time I just wanted the ribbon fries and some wings. I was asleep boy I tell ya. I have one bad for me. That is I feel like I see these wineries only. I love that it's a Va wine fest but where the rest of the wineries?? I feel like I had about the same options both times but maybe I'm just remembering wrong But yeah. Wine fest get your tickets early and beat me there don't meet me there.