WEST HAVEN, July 29, 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 event, held rain or shine, will include two stages and a DJ, along with 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 be raffles and giveaways, organizers said.
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 with Average White Band drummer Rocky Bryant, guitarist-producer Marc Ribler and guitarist Kyle Ward, a junior at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. 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, 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, a renowned session and touring guitarist, as well as 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.
The Hartford native organized West Haven’s first WimBash Beach Festival last August and donated the $7,000 proceeds to the music program, which paid for new instruments at Carrigan Intermediate School.
This year's festival will once again support the school music program, along with a music program at the West Haven Community House.
— MICHAEL P. WALSH, Public Relations Information Coordinator