The new GrassRoots Culture Camp is but one of the highlights of this year’s Virginia Key GrassRoots Festival of Music, Art and Dance, set to begin the Sunday before the actual festival, which will run Thursday, Feb. 19, through Sunday, Feb. 22.
Billed as a “warm-up week,” the camp is designed to allow visitors to make a destination vacation out of the festival and give locals a taste of the interactive style of entertainment and learning that the festival promotes.
The host site is the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park, located at 4020 Virginia Beach Dr., and Culture Camp tickets are available online at virginiakeygrassroots.com/event/virginia-key-grassrootsculture-camp-2015. The cost to attend each day of unlimited workshops is $25 and includes dinner and a dance. Children under 12 are admitted free to all events.
Beginning Feb. 15, Culture Camp attendees of all ages can participate in music and dance workshops throughout the day beginning at 9 a.m. Sunday’s kickoff event features a special Community Building Project/ Workshop co-hosted by Ben Cohen, founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. Cohen will demonstrate the late, great Pete Seeger’s “Giant Seesaw Parable,” which will operate throughout the GrassRoots Festival.
Music workshops will cover songwriting, percussion, various string instruments and duets, featuring many of the festival’s high-profile performers: Tara Nevins and Jeb Puryear from Donna the Buffalo, Claire Byrne, Joey Arcuri and Joe Kollar from Driftwood, and the multiple Grammy and Americana Music Association Award-winning Jim Lauderdale. Dance workshops will cover Latin dance with Cintia Lovo on Monday, line dancing with Nevins on Tuesday and wrap with Zydeco dance lessons on Wednesday.
Movement workshops begin each day with guided morning meditation led by Saranpreet Kaur, who will conduct a Kundalini Yoga class and a Kirtan workshop, and also include Tensegrity Practice with Jordan Puryear. The dinner and cooking palate will vary each day — Italian on Sunday, Latin American on Monday, Vietnamese on Tuesday and Cajun Gumbo styles on Wednesday. The camp dances begin each night at 8:30 p.m.
To view the full schedule of events, visit virginiakeygrassroots.com/yogamovement-workshops/grassroots-culture-camp. For more information, call 786-409-5261.
