WEST HAVEN, July 28, 2016 — The 2016 WimBash Beach Festival will showcase members of Grammy-winning band Living Colour, the Billy Joel Band and other superstars of rock.
The music festival, which will benefit West Haven youth music programs, is set for 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, in Old Grove Park. Admission is free.
The festival, held rain or shine, will include two stages and a DJ, as well as a beer garden and a convoy of locally owned food and dessert trucks along Palace Street. WimBash T-shirts will be sold, and there will also be raffles and giveaways.
To read the official news release and list of performers, click on WimBash Beach Festival below.
The 8 ½-hour festival, presented by Living Colour bassist Doug Wimbish and Nova Sound Studios, will spotlight the musical chops of Mark Rivera’s ’67 Chevy: A Tribute to the Kings of Rock ’n’ Soul Music featuring Wimbish and Living Colour frontman Corey Glover. Rivera is Billy Joel's longtime saxophonist.
The all-ages, family-friendly event is also sponsored by Mayor Edward M. O’Brien and the city in concert with The Rock House School of Music and Z’s Corner Cafe.
An all-star lineup of internationally acclaimed musicians and bands old and young, including Brooklyn, New York’s teen metal stars Unlocking the Truth, will play a fist-pumping selection of rollicking rockers and a treasure-trove of funky nuggets that chronicle the annals of rock ’n’ roll.
Also performing are Abby and the Roadsters, Chemical Z with special guest Gary Hoey, Tears Fall Down with E.S. Choral Group, Pop Rocks, Maxx Explosion, Fools Faith, Peter Lucibelli and DJ Markie Gee.
The WimBash Music Festival Series, a charity founded by Wimbish that includes the festival and related fundraising events, has collected $10,000 to date for the West Haven school district’s music program.
This year's festival will once again support the school music program, along with a music program at the West Haven Community House.
Wimbish, a native of Hartford, organized West Haven’s first WimBash Beach Festival last August and donated the $7,000 proceeds to the school music program, which has paid for new instruments at Carrigan Intermediate School.
— MICHAEL P. WALSH, Public Relations Information Coordinator