First Fridays more
Cowbells? Effects pedals? Dueling harpsichords? Yes, all that and more is coming to this year’s Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival. If you think the Bach Festival is an “EMU thing,” think again! This year the Festival will have a bigger downtown Harrisonburg presence than ever before, and you’ll hear sounds you never thought you’d hear from classical musicians! more
With summer quickly approaching, kids all over the Valley are getting excited for summer camps, pool parties, the beach, and hanging out with their pals! Let’s be honest, who doesn’t love summer? more
We’re a month into our second Friendly City Fortune raffle fundraiser and we wanted to continue building excitement by sharing the projects that last year’s raffle is funding. Raffle proceeds contribute towards projects that directly benefit Harrisonburg; align with community values expressed in surveys, Idea Pop Ups, and focus groups; and create a downtown that we all love. Here’s exactly how: more
It's about that time of year...when most people have forgotten their New Year's resolutions that they so desperately wanted to stick to. In fact, according to Business Insider, 80% of people who made a resolution will fail by the second week of February. more
Last Saturday, Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance and Brothers Craft Brewing teamed up to celebrate both of our anniversaries at the brewery. more
Last Thursday, a cool show popped up in downtown Harrisonburg that united music lovers, beer drinkers, and concert goers alike. Sofar Sounds, a music organization reaching 376 cities across the globe, made its third appearance in the “friendly city.” A group of JMU Marketing and Music Industry students brought Sofar to Harrisonburg last March. The JMU seniors handle all of the logistics, including booking the artists, selecting the venues, promoting the shows, and hiring and managing a production team of photographers, videographers, and audio/sound engineers. more
On the evening of Tuesday, April 11, every barstool, patio chair, and indoor table is occupied. There’s a friendliness in the air—the kind in which a stranger will scoot over so that you can have your own space at the bar, and the bartenders ask how your day was before taking an order. As bustling as the taproom is, it feels more like a community’s living room, filled with the laughter and chatter that you hear during a distant family’s holiday get-together. In front of most of the patrons is a pint glass; many ordering at the bar request Arrant (Pale Fire’s newest IPA), with it’s name descending from Shakespeare’s writing. In fact, even the establishment’s name derives from one of the founder’s favorite books, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov and an excerpt of Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, “[t]he moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.” more
In Harrisonburg, we recognize the importance of standing up for what we believe in. After a recent survey’s results, the Arts Council of the Valley (ACV) launched a Save a Seat fundraiser, concluding that sitting down (comfortably) is also important to our community. After 18 years of patronage, with spare parts deplenished and the replacement parts unavailable for the theater’s 250 well-loved seats, Court Square Theater (CST) is in need of a pragmatic makeover which will enable our community’s residents to support the variety of shows, music, films and activities in comfort. more
It happens most weeks: I’m sitting in front of the monitor in my home office, tapping my fingers along the desk, and endeavoring to stay focused while writing a poem, a blog post or an upcoming speech. The moment my fingers touch the keyboard’s home keys, I’m distracted by Winston and Rosie’s paws tapping along the hardwood flooring towards me, nudging their noses on my leg in hopes that I’ll take them outside again. Or, I’ll catch a glimpse of the mountain of laundry (involving single socks I don’t even recognize) which I should sort, fold and carry upstairs. Once I see it, it’s all I can see. Because the laundry doesn’t disappear upon me wishing it away, and because I’ve yet to train my dogs how to open the door whenever they want to chase that squirrel they never catch, I need to write where I’m comfortable and in an environment conducive to productivity. more