THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 6, 1995 TAG: 9505090310
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Harborfest - Norfolk's annual riverfront party and one of the East Coast's premier leisure events - will wrap up its teen years with June's edition.
It will be Harborfest 20 - June 2 to 4. Organizers of this year's festival promise a full and fun-filled event this year.
Country music singer Toby Keith, along with The Guess Who, The Platters and the Virginia Symphony, among others, will provide the entertainment on land.
Aerobatic champion Don Johnson and the Toyota Air Show Team will provide thrills in the clouds.
The traditional parade of sail - with, for the first time, an 85-foot privately owned fireboat in the lead - will kick off the three-day festival followed by a series of races and events on the river.
PYRO Shows of Lafayette, Tenn., will work with Z-104 FM to produce the Saturday night fireworks show. PYRO won the 1993 North American Fireworks Competition in Virginia Beach and took second place last year.
The Best of the East Volleyball Tournament will be ongoing all three days in the World Trade Center parking lot.
Harborfest is changing this year. As of Jan. 1, the event - long a production of Festevents - became an entity unto itself, Harborfest Inc., with a board of directors. ``But we still have a very active and positive relationship with Festevents,'' said Harborfest Chairman Harry Worley.
The ever-changing makeup of downtown Norfolk is again causing Harborfest to reshape itself this year.
Traditionally, the parking lot next to the World Trade Center has served as the country music stage area. But changes made by the city have pushed the country stage to a location next to Waterside.
That means Elderfest and the children's area are on the move, too, relocating this year to the loop of Town Point Park nearest to Nauticus.
Nauticus, which opened during last year's Harborfest, will play a bigger role in this year's festival. The first floor will be open free to the public all three days.
Another new addition for 1995: Mariner's Row.
``We have invited organizations that have direct interest in the (Elizabeth) River or (Chesapeake) Bay to come and show the public what they do,'' Worley said. Among the participants: the Virginia Pilots Association, the Old Dominion University Oceanography Department, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Mariner's Museum and the Marine Science Museum.
Mariner's Row will be located along the walkway leading to the Nauticus pier where the Navy's aegis cruiser Normandy will be docked and open for visits. by CNB