The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Monday, May 29, 1995                   TAG: 9505290052
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
TYPE: North Carolina Briefs 
DATELINE: COROLLA                            LENGTH: Short :   42 lines

BEACH MUSIC FESTIVAL SATURDAY

The seventh annual Ships Watch/Buck Island Beach Music Festival will be held Saturday in Corolla.

Beach Music Festival VII will feature the sounds of Bill Deal and Ammon Tharp. The North Tower Band will perform to provide nearly full-time music from the time the party begins at 4:30 p.m. until it ends at 11.

Organized by Tim and Buck Thornton - and sponsored by businesses throughout eastern North Carolina - the Beach Music Fesival is an annual benefit for The Nature Conservancy's Nags Head Woods Preserve.

Proceeds are used to fund new exhibits and programs for the Nags Head Woods Nature Education Project, which provides environmental education for children and adults on the Outer Banks.

``The Beach Music Festival is making it possible for us to break new ground at Nags Head Woods and to launch what we hope will become a model environmental education program on the Outer Banks,'' said Jeff Smith DeBlieu, director of the Nags Head Woods Preserve.

In past years, hundreds of partiers have turned out for the festival on the grounds of the Thornton's Ships Watch residential development in Duck.

The festival has become so successful that this year it has been moved to a spacious new home at the Buck Island residential development in Corolla.

In addition to music, the festival will feature a shag contest a fashion show and food catered by Kelly's.

Tickets are $150 per couple or $75 per person. A portion of the ticket price will be tax-deductible as a charitable contribution.

More than 80 businesses are sponsoring the Beach Music Festival, and proceeds for The Nature Conservancy are expected to approach $50,000. With the proceeds, the Beach Music Festival will have raised more than $175,000 for Nags Head Woods since 1988.

For more information or obtain tickets, call 441-2525. by CNB