5th Annual Manassas Wine and Jazz Festival

Thursday, May 21, 2009

What do you get when you add the musical director for the Food Network’s popular series Emeril Live! to the Manassas Wine & Jazz Festival? BAM!!! Historic Manassas, Inc. is excited to announce that master percussionist Doc Gibbs and his band Nfusion will be the opening performer at the 5th Annual Manassas Wine & Jazz Festival on Sunday, June 21. Doc Gibbs is one of the most sought after percussionists in the music industry today. Whether he is recording or touring with his band, Doc mesmerizes audiences with an artistry and craftsmanship on percussion that draws you deep inside funky Afro-Cuban rhythms.

Tickets for what is quickly becoming a Father’s Day tradition in the area are now available, and can be purchased at www.visitmanassas.org, or at the Old Town Visitors Center in the train depot 7 days a week between 9am and 5pm. Held at the Harris Pavilion in the heart of historic Old Town from 11am until 6pm, taster’s tickets are $20.00, and non-taster’s tickets are $10.00, and children under 10 are free. Tickets may also be purchased on-line until June 17 on the HMI website, and picked up from the Will Call table at the festival gates. The taster’s ticket price includes an official festival tasting wine glass.

HMI is also pleased to welcome back accomplished jazz pianist Marcus Johnson, who has performed every year and has become a true friend of the festival. Vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Barbara Martin from the Shenandoah Valley will also be entertaining festival-goers with traditional American blues and jazz. Be sure to bring a lawn chair or blanket to relax on the Pavilion lawn with a bottle of wine, lunch from the gourmet food concessions and great music. The Manassas Wine and Jazz Festival is an intimate, relaxed event where you have the opportunity to discuss wines with 14 award-winning Virginia vintners. You will also find many merchants that offer wine related merchandise and artwork.

Virginia wineries participating in this year’s festival are:

Horton Winery
White Fences Vineyard & Winery
Peaks of Otter Winery/Orchards
Willowcroft Farm Vineyards
Unicorn Winery
Loudon Valley Vineyards
Athena Vineyards & Winery
Villa Appalachia Winery
Kluge Estates
Vino Curioso
DelFosse Vineyards and Winery
Naked Mountain
The Winery at La Grange
First Colony Winery

Tickets make a great Father’s Day gift for that wine & jazz-loving dad! Sorry, coolers and picnic baskets are not permitted inside the festival gates.

For more festival and ticket information, please call 703-361-6599 or visit www.visitmanassas.org.