Doug Alan Wilcox delivers music that will stick in your head - as well as your heart. Over the years, Wilcox has provided support for or shared a stage with a diverse cross-section of musical talent including Peter Mayer, Tom Prasado-Rao, Jen Chapin, L.J. Booth, Stacey Earle, Pierce Pettis, and Peter Case.“Passionate and insightful....” “Funky, folky....”"Doug Alan Wilcox has the soul of a poet and the songs to prove it. He immediately became a favorite guest on the Acoustic Highway.” - Barry Graham, Folk music producer / WHRV FM"I was drawn to your authentic soul-filled sound and the lyrics caught me by surprise." - KD Morris, gallery owner“Wilcox's honey soaked vocals can exhibit swagger and occasionally a sadness.....” - Brian Tucker, Bootleg magazine

Located in the Norge area of Williamsburg, VA. En Pointe takes pride in being a small local business that focuses on the technique and growth of a dancer. This award winning classical ballet company provides a non-competative, warm and loving environment for our dancers to grow and learn in. We are an elite dance company that offers Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Hip Hop, and more! Dancers will get the opportunity to perform in our annual performances and more!

10 time National Scottish Fiddling Champion, recording artist, composer, teacher, carries on the traditional style of the Golden Era of Scottish Fiddling. Hear him live and unaccompanied once again at the Occasion for the Arts.

Magician performing family friendly magic

A former Army brat who lived all over the world before settling in Gloucester, Virginia where she and her husband raised three daughters. After retiring, Patti returned to her first love – writing. Her short stories have won prizes in the Golden Nib and the Keating awards. TOPIC: How to use moments from your life to inspire

Runaway String Band is "an impressive ensemble of awesome musicians with a foot tapping, irresistible sound,” say the Tidewater Friends of Folk Music. With lush vocal harmonies and hot instrumentals, the band provides their audiences with a taste of traditional and popular American music. They perform in concerts and festivals around Virginia as well as private events such as weddings and parties, combining mandolin, guitar, 5-string banjo with the 7-string viola da gamba, a family member of the upright bass with a tender, haunting sound.

The Williamsburg community has enjoyed the music of our youth harpists since 1995, when Cynthia Campbell harpist and music teacher at Rawls Byrd Elementary school, began teaching the school students on a few rented harps.Although based in public schools for more than a decade, the Rawls Byrd-Berkeley harp program was privately funded from its inception. In 2006 parents voted to end the school-based program and to form the Williamsburg Youth Harp Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to the success of the new private program.

Christian Pascale graduated from Lafayette College Magna Cum Lauda with degrees in French and International Relations. He then went on to receive an M.A. in European Area Studies from American University in Washington D.C. and a Doctorat de l’université from La Sorbonne in Paris, France. For more than thirty years, he worked in both domestic and foreign assignments for the United States Government.

The Higher Ground Big Band is a community outreach group that seeks to uplift and inspire with swing, Latin, and jazz standards as well as modern big band arrangements. The band is composed of 18 professional and amateur instrumentalists, along with a vocalist. It has played in many venues throughout the Hampton Roads area since 2006. The band is directed by Joel Joiner and we derive our motivation from a sense of service to others, but to be honest, we also play because our music is just so much fun.

The Book Festival’s Youth Headliner, Sarah Glenn Marsh, is the author of 10 picture books and 7 young adult and middle grade books. An avid fantasy reader from the day her dad handed her a copy of The Hobbit and promised it would change her life, she’s been making up words and worlds ever since. When she’s not writing, Sarah frequents the pottery studio, volunteers her time to sighthound rescue, and raises awareness about her autoimmune disease, Type 1 diabetes. She’s never met an animal or a doughnut she didn’t like. Sarah lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, daughter, and their tiny zoo of four rescued sighthounds, two birds, and many fish. Ninita’s Big World was an Amazon Best Book of 2019 The Junior Library Guild selected Dragon Bones: The Fantastic Fossil Discoveries of Mary Anning. TOPIC: Things Seen and Unseen: invisible illness in Speculative Fiction

Sl’lach is an accoustic duo who specialize in Irish Folk Music. We take our name from a Gaelic term meaning “jolly,” hoping to infuse our music with a spirit of fun and merry making. Playing primarily Irish folk music, we also enjoy throwing in tunes from other traditions as well.

“Friel is a very talented vocalist with a big and unique voice,” writes Toronto Exclusive Magazine. Whether performing original compositions or favorite cover songs, award-winning songwriter Skip Friel delivers an energetic and moving performance. Friel’s music spans from acoustic variety to tasteful rock. Cover songs include both contemporary and popular tunes of the past. Skip is at home in large festival venues, as well as on intimate, acoustic-friendly stages.

Meade Skelton Haufe, otherwise known as "Meade Skelton", grew up in Loudoun County, Virginia, and began playing music at a very early age. After graduating from High School, he soon moved to his late mother's home town of Richmond, and quickly got involved in the music scene, playing with such bands as The Floating Folk Festival, The Kate Lawton Band, and The Gravity Hounds. Described as "Coffee Shop Country", by critic Ned Hepburn, Meade also embraces his "outsider music" status. Meade oozes a Countrypolitan demeanor, usually dressed in his favorite blazer , cowboy boots, and vintage Western Cowboy shirts.

Joe’s Day Off (JDO) is a local Williamsburg Virginia band that covers country, rock, standards, & oldies with great harmonies and a variety of instruments. They’ve been rocking the town since 2007. Frontman, Joe Duggan, can play solo, or the band can perform as a duet, trio, quartet, or quintet. For small venues and special occasions, JDO can perform acoustic sets, or for large event, they can add additional players.

The march of the Fifes and Drums is an indispensable part of the Colonial Williamsburg visit. The shrill fife and the resounding drum broadcast a wave of sound throughout the Historic Area, announcing the red-and-blue-uniformed regiment moving through the streets of Williamsburg.Standing along Duke of Gloucester Street as the Fifes and Drums march by, today’s guests experience exactly what the soldiers of the 18th century felt as the vibrations of sound resonate not just in their ears, but through their whole bodies.

Since the beginning, we've produced puppet shows for children that entertain, enlighten, and educate. In 1977, David Messick and a group of family and friends were asked to produce a puppet production for the Charles Taylor Library System in Hampton, Virginia. "Jack and the Beanstalk" became our first show.Our first puppets were marionettes or string puppets. We soon converted these to rod puppets to create better site lines at the libraries where we played.

Scrapper Tuesday is a trio that plays pop and rock and makes it sound like Americana. They mix in blues, bluegrass and roadhouse to create their good time sound. Phil Casey writes toe-tapping originals, often about the people, places and history of Hampton Roads, and plays guitar, mandolin and cigar box guitar. Matt Houser, Phil’s son-in-law, plays the tasty licks on electric guitar and cigar box guitars (which he also makes.) Mark McGowan ensures the center holds on bass. They started playing together in 2016.

Mix of covers and originals on drums, resonator guitar, musical saw and sackbut.Stephen Christoff writes songs from what you might call sidewalk observations: On one hand, he’ll write songs about Prague, wanderlust and airports and on the next, Executioner’s Daughter’s and Trains.As a performer, Stephen has performed frequently on Virginia’s public radio, The Smithsonian Center for American Art and Portraiture, The Library of Congress, Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, The College of William and Mary and The Black Swamp Arts Festival.

A mix of familiar country favorites and today's Americana with undertones of bluegrass

Poisoned Dwarf is a Celtic music group that plays virtuosic, innovative and passionate renditions of traditional Irish and Scottish music on acoustic instruments. Five talented musicians create a driving sonic energy that has been captivating audiences for over a decade with whistles, flutes, violin, guitar, percussion, and Uilleann pipes together with exciting and lyrical vocals. Poisoned Dwarf performs at a wide variety of musical venues from highland festivals to theaters, from churches to sophisticated listening venues throughout the East Coast, to the occasional pub just for fun.

Family oriented dance program.In 2007, Heidi Robitshek, former artistic director and founder of the Chamber Ballet along with her protégée Adelle Carpenter founded the Virginia Regional Ballet to dedicate a school to the continued improvement and enhancement of classical ballet technique. Virginia Regional Ballet Academy sponsors the Virginia Regional Ballet, Inc., whose purpose is to bring to the community and develop among its citizens an educational and cultural program in dance.Virginia Regional Ballet is located in Williamsburg’s Art District at 1228 Richmond Road adjacent to the Williamsburg Community Pool and is professionally designed and constructed to provide the best possible facilities for instruction. In 2013, Virginia Regional Ballet acquired a second location in Yorktown at 5315 George Washington Memorial Highway and 110-B Dare Road.

Holding degrees from the University of Kentucky and the University of California, Davis, Susan Williamson is a former newspaper editor, college adjunct and extension agent. A native of Pennsylvania, she currently lives in Williamsburg, Virginia and works as a freelance writer, editor, novelist, and riding instructor. TOPIC: Too little attention has been given to the many who lost loved ones in Afghanistan. I wanted to set part of Desert Tail in a bordering country and I am fascinated with Turkmenistan's Akhal Teke horses.

The father/son duo have been playing their authentic Irish style music for years here in Williamsburg and in Irish pubs all around New York City. Their sets are quite diverse. You'll hear rock, country, folk and even some doo-wop.

Winsome is a guitar based acoustic group covering popular music from the 60s, 70s and beyond witha focus on well crafted vocal harmonies. Members are Jane Ferguson, John Trindle, Rob Weinberg and Niki Worrell.

David Reid Brown is an artist, pastor, and retired Navy Chaplain. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Virginia State University, a Master of Divinity degree from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, and a Master of Elementary Education degree from Hawaii Pacific University.TOPIC: Poignant reflections on loss and recovery during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

Williamsburg based band Clan MacCool is a fun, high energy band specializing in original and traditional Irish/Scottish music. Thier play list spans several centuries and includes many pirate inspired originals. This local favorite is comfortable on stage in front of hundreds or roving events making one on one connections with your patrons.

Flute Frenzy is a premier flute choir. Its mission is to expose the public to a wealth of wonderful music written especially for flute ensembles

Hailing from Williamsburg, Louis C Vangieri/LCV Project has over a decade of experience playing Virginians stresses, easing his listeners into a state of existential acoustic bliss with his instrumental folk renditions and original instrumental acoustic songs.

Crazy X is a high energy, rock ‘n country showband that makes entertaining and connecting with the crowd a number one priority. Crazy X was formed in 2007 and consists of Dane Davis (guitar and vocals), Julie Martin (bass and vocals), Kenny Thompson (drums), Robert Bingham (keyboards), and Andrew Dack (Fiddle). With a wide array of musical backgrounds from which to draw, Crazy X authentically delivers rockin’ tunes such as Def Leppard’s ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ to Charlie Daniels ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia’, and everything in between! Crazy X understands that it is all about YOU – the audience! We look forward to seeing you soon!