Festevents Traditions

An Interview with Karen Scherberger

By Jeff Maisey

Change is coming to downtown Norfolk’s Town Point Park later this year. Following the Town Point Virginia Wine Festival in October, construction will begin and continue until late June of 2009, when the park will reopen with a delayed Harborfest.

New features coming to the Town Point Park will include a repositioning of the main stage – lengthwise – so concertgoers will have an unobstructed view of the Elizabeth River to their right. The park will have additional staging areas so performances can be zoned for smaller concerts and events. Festevents, the city’s non-profit organization in charge of programming the park, hopes to include a visual arts show to its calendar. Improved pathways, restroom facilities, shaded seating areas, public art installations, and two water-fountains are also to be important components to the improved Town Point Park.

These changes, says Festevents executive director Karen Scherberger, reflect the future needs of the community.

In the meantime, I asked Scherberger her views on the upcoming season of events.

Can you tell us about the success of the first Spring Town Point Virginia Wine Festival and what you expect for the May 10 event upcoming?

We have 22 wineries already signed up for this year’s spring festival, which is double what we had last year. We attribute the enormous attendance – 6,000 people to attend the one-day wine festival – to a trend we see nationwide, which is that the fastest growing events are tasting-related, and enjoying those in an outdoor environment. Everyone we know that produces tasting events says the turnout is tremendous.

As we become busier and family-time gets more stretched, these types of events are becoming more popular.

Because of the success of that event and the Beer Festival (May 17), rather than expanding into a full second day on Sunday we decided to incorporate a Friday night preview so people after work can start off their weekend at a reduced ticket price to get a sampling.

Do you see the Friday night preview as a promotion for the Saturday spring wine and beer festivals?

We do. But we’ve reshaped the whole Friday night experience in May. The first Friday night we’ll be working with Gold’s Gym and having a downtown volleyball league; we’ve extended an open invitation to all the artists at the d’Art Center to bring out their sketchbooks and easels and prints. It’s not a structured art show; they can find a place under their favorite tree. We’re giving the business community a chance to have their own business party at the event.

What can you tell us about this year’s Harborfest?

A lot of the headlining acts are what you would consider as classics, but we’re trying to bring in more contemporary acts to the local stages like the Hard Rockfish Café stage.

Even the young generation appreciates the tradition of Harborfest. It’s kind of like the neighborhood reunion event. It’s multi-generational.

How about the Bayou Boogaloo? Last year you had a tie-in with New Orleans and a charity.

We’re doing the same thing. We have at least 30 New Orleans artists coming up. We pay all their expenses. We send a moving van down there and load-up all of their art. We send a bus down and bring them (artists) up, and we house them while they’re here for the weekend. Everything they make goes right to them.

Trombone Shorty, which is one of the acts we brought up to Norfolk last year, is donating his time to play Thursday night (at the fundraiser). Everyone who comes out Thursday for the benefit, which will be in the park this year, receive a free admission ticket for Friday. All the proceeds raised from the silent auction and from the bar and food will go to the New Orleans Arts Council.

What feedback did you receive last year from the people of New Orleans?

They were really touched that Norfolk would reach out to them like that. It’s amazing how many people who live in Hampton Roads have some connection to New Orleans. It was great for folks around here to connect with that community. For people here in Hampton Roads that want to help with that recovery effort it’s hard to find a way to do it that feels like you’re really touching someone. But this way you get to see the artists (of New Orleans) and you get to talk to them and hear their stories.

There was one artist that all of her work was made from wood that was taken from the doors of houses that were beyond repair.

This year we’re inviting the public to be a patron of one of these artists while they’re here.

How important is the big band music series for the Ocean View community?

They love it.

You know that’s a series we started at Town Point Park but outgrew the site where we were hosting these events behind Waterside. The style of dancing that goes along with big band music, they need a flat surface.

The idea for that series came from the old Cavalier Hotel. It was an open-air dance floor years and years ago. My parents used to go there and dance. I would go and dance on my dad’s toes. I have these fond memories of big bands on the waterfront, so it seemed like a natural for it to move to Ocean View. It’s part of the Ocean View lifestyle now.

There are people who come every Sunday; they bring their lawn chairs and they have their spot. If you’re a newcomer and make the mistake of sitting in someone’s regular spot, you’ll soon find out.

Jazz music concerts have a difficult time in Hampton Roads when it comes to profitability. How well does the Norfolk Jazz Festival do at Town Point Park in July?

It’s still tough. We’ve broken even one year in all the many years we’ve had this event. It’s tough just to meet costs, but it’s an important music genre and we’re committed to it.

The city has agreed this year to help us in some of the funding. They came in a couple of years ago to jumpstart it so we could start it again.

I’m optimistic. We’re now talking with several sponsors and if we can get them onboard we’ll be good to go. We’d love to get it back to the Friday, Saturday, Sunday that it used to be. But just the Friday and Saturday, the total out-of-pocket cost is about $150,000. We lost about 50-grand last year. We can incur a deficit on some events at a certain level, but when they start to get that significant it’s tough.

We’ve tried to present the more traditional jazz artists but what we have found is that you really need a more intimate setting for those artists. Financially, in order to make it work for us is we have to have much larger audiences and the smooth jazz format does attract those audiences. And those smooth jazz artists do credit the legends of jazz. It’s a very eclectic form of music and everyone has an opinion as to what is really jazz, but we know that this works for us.

One of the challenges we have is that because Town Point Park is so large that when a promoter or agent looks at our seating capacity we a charged the high end of the scale. That’s why it’s a real challenge for us financially.

What we’re hoping with this new design of the park is that we’ll be able to create these smaller venues, zones within the park. It took me years to figure out why I’m paying these huge fees when I know the Blues Alley in Washington, there’s no way they’re paying what I’m paying for some of these jazz acts.

In September you have some more intimate events, like Lewis McGehee and friends? How have those been received?

People just love it. It’s uncomplicated. You can bring out your own picnic dinner. It’s very laid back.

The October Town Point Virginia Wine Festival has been hugely successful. Is it possible to grow it?

Well, there’s still some more space. We’re always amazed how Saturday just continues to multiply. There’s an audience that loves Saturday.

When we have people who buy tickets for the first time we explain what to expect on Saturday, but if you’re really interested in getting to know the winery and spending time at the booth and sampling, then Sunday’s probably the better day. Then there are folks that come on Saturday one year; they experience it and then come on Sunday the next year.

But there are still some things land-wise we can do to open it up.

A lot of the wineries that come from the western part of the state will load-up to the ceiling of the trucks and they’ll go through everything they bring down. Sometimes they’ll go through everything on Saturday and they’ll have to go back, load-up again, and then drive overnight for Sunday.

There’s a threshold and we’re probably not too far from it. We don’t want the event to become so crowded that it’s not enjoyable or that the lines are so long. We don’t want to raise the price so high. It’s a nice challenge.

All of the wineries have loved the experience. As we can add more, we do.