THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 27, 1995 TAG: 9507250107
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT McCASKEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Blackbeard may have gotten only as close as Ocracoke, N.C., but pirate lore lovers can celebrate his legend in Norfolk at the sixth annual Blackbeard Pirate Jamboree Friday and Saturday along the downtown waterfront.
Town Point Park and the Elizabeth River will host a variety of swashbuckling goings-on. There will be a Pirate Parade of Sail, adult and children's costume contests, limbo dancing, live music, and food and beverages. Gift certificates from local merchants and other prizes will be awarded to the best decorated boats and best dressed pirates.
Plymouth, N.C., native Ben Cherry will make his annual appearance as Blackbeard, heading the pirate flotilla and a mock invasion of the shoreline. Cherry, a good likeness of the infamous rogue, portrays Blackbeard around the world.
``It's a kind of fantasy weekend,'' said Becky Bump, marketing director of Festevents, which produces the event.
Both kids and adults, however, do take their pirating seriously. Bump reports that 50 boats already have registered for the parade, the most since the event's inception. V.I.P. boater packages cost $50 and include parade and docking site privileges, and passes to the Pirate's Cove hospitality area and the farewell breakfast cruise Sunday morning on the Carrie B.
An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people attended the jamboree in 1994, which was plagued somewhat by bad weather. Bump expects a larger turnout this year.
Other entertainment includes a kids' activities area, fire-eating displays, stilt dancing and conch-shell blowing contests. Margaritaville, an adult play area at the Waterside amphitheater, will a feature a disc jockey spinning Latin and calypso music. Live music will be provided by Panama Steele, a steel drum band, the Parrot Head Party Band, of the Jimmy Buffett genre, and Pyrates Royale, a group of singing pirates.
The event is open to the public, and admission is free. Part of the vendors' proceeds will benefit the Children's Rights Council and the Tidewater Association for the Hearing Impaired.
Boater packages will be sold on Friday if space is still available at the Waterside Marina. Call Festevents at 441-2345 for more information. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Ben Cherry of Plymouth, N.C., portrays Blackbeard around the world,
and he'll be in Norfolk again this weekend for the jamboree.
Graphic
JAMBOREE HIGHLIGHTS
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB