THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 17, 1996 TAG: 9605150116
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 01E EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAWSON MILLS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Linwood Nelms, chairman of last year's Jubilee, is still impressed by the sheer size of the event staged every year in his home city.
``The carnival people tell me,'' said Nelms, senior vice president and secretary of the Bank of Hampton Roads, ``we're bigger than most county fairs. You have to get to the state fair to find something larger.
``The livestock show, up until two years ago, when it included Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, had the largest livestock auction in Virginia, except for the State Fair.''
He is especially fond of the agricultural side of the Jubilee. ``That's a nice venue,'' he continues. ``I'm a city boy, and I think we don't take advantage of it enough.
``As the city is more and more urban, a lot of urban dwellers don't spend time around cows and pigs. The cow-milking contest always draws several councilmen and the Jubilee committee chairman. If they see you, they'll let you make a fool of yourself, but it's all in good fun. I did it with a fair amount of trepidation. One councilman, who grew up on a farm, did real well.''
Nelms is continuing another tradition associated with the Jubilee: that of chairmen staying involved after their year is up.
``This is the third year in a row that an equestrian organization is putting on two days of equestrian events,'' he said, before switching his train of thought from the agricultural to other things.
``People who don't come,'' he said, ``have an image of a big festival, but it's more than that. We have the family stage, arts and crafts and an educational tent.
``The kid in me likes to walk through the carnival area. I still love to play the games.
``We're the only outfit in the area,'' he said, ``that does fireworks both nights. It was George Zambelli's idea this year to do something to honor those firemen.''
The thing that gets the most attention, Nelms said, is the entertainment. He is happy that a third, gospel stage has been added and delighted with the diversity represented by this year's acts.
The entertainment, he acknowledged, has tended to lean toward country but, and he is clearly pleased, this year it didn't do that.
``We're beginning with Atlanta Rhythm Section,'' he said, ``and we haven't done that kind of disco/rock sound before. They'll play well. The Bellamy Brothers have been around awhile, and now they're taking off again. Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. Now that's a little more mellow.''
The discussion about the entertainment jarred a memory of a past Jubilee.
``One of my favorite Saturday nights,'' Nelms said, ``was the night we had the Commodores.''
``On Sunday,'' he said, ``we have Aaron Tippin. It's a big act that gets all the headlines. He would be half of a festival ticket elsewhere that cost $15 or $16 a ticket.
``Jason D. Williams, I think, is an undiscovered Jerry Lee Lewis. I don't think a lot of people have seen him. He is something else.''
He pauses to collect his thoughts, observing that he's been so close to the Jubilee for so long, he hardly knows what to address next.
``One of the things that makes it work,'' he said, ``is the continued involvement of past chairmen. It's probably the No. 1 strength and the No. 1 weakness.''
Nelms is working with fund-raising and entertainment for this year's Jubilee.
``We probably need to do a better job of bringing people in,'' he said. ``We can bring in unpaid staff. We probably need to re-invent ourselves.
``The city gives us tremendous support. I would like to make the Jubilee self-sufficient, but it wouldn't be the same without everybody's participation.''
Nelms doesn't know of anything else that brings the city together like the Jubilee.
``I think it's the only time there's an event of any magnitude,'' he said, ``that we lose the identity of being Greenbrier or Western Branch and come together as a city.''
He really has no feel for how many people attend, but judges the event's success in other ways.
``To gauge how well we're doing, there's always an over-abundance of vendors vying for vendor slots, and they come back,'' Nelms said.
``The strength that we have is space. I compare us to a mini-state fair. Entertainment, midway, fireworks, agricultural show, equestrian show. That's a fair.
``I would like to see it bigger. Some friends look at me like I've lost my mind. But when tents start showing up, people having a good time, maybe I had a little bit to do with it.'' ILLUSTRATION: ``The kid in me likes to walk through the carnival area,'' says
Linwood Nelms, chairman of last year's Jubilee.
by CNB