Weekend Best Bets: Delray Affair Edition

The official 2014 Poster by Ora Sorensen.

The official 2014 Poster by Ora Sorensen.

The Delray Affair is Here

The Delray Affair is the city’s signature event and with 250,000 people expected this weekend in Delray, it’s hard to argue.

Here are the facts:

DATES/TIMES:

 Friday, April 25, 2014 (10:00 am to 6:00 pm)

 Saturday, April 26, 2014 (10:00 am to 6:00 pm)

 Sunday, April 27, 2014 (10:00 am to 5:00 pm)

 

PARKING:           

 $5 County Parking Garage – West Atlantic Avenue; next to Courthouse/behind library

 $5 Parking Garage – Old School Square

 $5 at City Hall – City Attorney’s office & grass lot

 

STREET CLOSURES:

 4:00 am Friday, April 25th through 10:00 pm Sunday, April 27th

 (NW 2nd Avenue from Tennis Center east to Intracoastal)

 

FESTIVAL FEATURES:           

 – Over 700+ vendors featuring hand-crafted arts and crafts, fine arts, great food!

– Live music at two beer gardens all week-end long (4th & Atlantic and front lawn of Delray Beach Center for the Arts)

 – Commemorative Poster design by Ora Sorenson

 – Commemorative T-Shirt design by Chamber Staff Member, Teri Brant

 – NEW Enhanced mobile application, with year-long functionality, that integrates the community with vendors, sponsors, and advertisers

•iPhone & Android compatible

•Capability to search by category, exhibitor name or category

•View event schedule and add to personal schedule

•Color coded maps with GPS directional from your location

•Survey

•Launched April 18th – download AFTER 18th or you’ll get old one (delrayaffair)

 

-NEW Mobile “Art of the Automobile at Delray Affair”

•Featuring a different collection each day, located under the big tent at OSS park

•Dream Ride

•American Classics

•European Classics

•Future Classics

•Featured Attraction Using Special Olympics as their cause, Dream Ride raises the awareness and much-needed funds for people living with intellectual disabilities while inspiring our communities to overcome diversity, with all the achievements and accomplishments of Special Olympics athletes’ serving as an example.

•Founded in 2001, “Dream Ride” started as just that––a dream from Michael A. Bozzuto, CEO of Bozzuto’s Inc. It began as an optimistic vision to help people with intellectual disabilities living in our communities. Thirteen years later––thanks to the passion, hope and dedication of his entire company and the community––“The Dream Ride Experience” has evolved into the largest philanthropic endeavor sponsored by Bozzuto’s Inc. and The Hometown Foundation, Inc.

•The Dream Ride Experience is a culmination of years’ worth of fundraising events, activities and outreach. It is an event to celebrate the achievements of Special Olympics athletes and to honor these outstanding men, women and children living with intellectual disabilities in our communities.

•Spanning thirteen states along the Eastern Seaboard and three countries, “The Dream Ride Experience” has become one of the most exciting and highly anticipated events for engine enthusiasts, Special Olympians and passionate participants. Currently, over $2,245,000 has been raised for Special Olympics programs in multiple states, with over 100% of the proceeds directly benefiting the charity.

 

NEW “Rendezvous at the Affair Media – Entertainment Lounge & Broadcast Center Sponsored by PeterMark Salon Foundation, an exclusive VIP area featuring food tastings by local restaurants, hair & fashion show, chair massages, tanning salon, give-a-ways, music dancing and an after party at Delux Nightclub

•Located at PeterMark VIP Block on NE 4th Avenue and Atlantic

•$20 Friday & Saturday, $10 Sunday

Enjoy! If you need more information visit https://delrayaffair.com/

  

 

Arts Garage Hosts Jazz Professors

If you’re looking for something to do Saturday night after wandering the Delray Affair, consider some jazz at The Arts Garage.

Grammy winning Jeff Rupert is a Yamaha performing artist, a record producer, recording artist, freelance tenor saxophonist, full time professor, and Director of Jazz Studies at UCF.

The Jazz Professors, a sextet had top JazzWeek charting hit albums in 2012 and 2013. “The Jazz Professors: Live at the UCF-Orlando Jazz Festival” (Flying Horse, 2011) peaked at #19 during its 17 weeks on the JazzWeek charts.

The Professors will be at the Arts Garage, Saturday, April 26 at 8 a.m.

For tickets visit www.artsgarage.org

 

Weekend Best Bets: Legends, Buffalo and The Blues

One word: Oriente

One word: Oriente

Buffalo Bash Food Festival

 On April 13th, the Mizner Amphitheatre will be the site for the Buffalo Bash Food Festival. Local restaurants will be showcasing their best wings. So, stop by. You’ll probably see Jeff with some Tabanero hot sauce.

 This event benefits Autism Speaks and is one of many events during Autism Awareness Month.

 RENÉ MARIE @ Arts Garage

 Award-winning singer and legend René Marie is unmistakably honest and unpretentious while transforming audiences worldwide with her impassioned vocals and powerful interpretations of jazz, soul, blues and gospel.

In other words, she’s all that and a bag of chips. Catch her Friday night at 8 p.m.

Visit www.artsgarage.org for tickets and more info.

  

ORIENTE Rocks

 Oriente’s signature sound features funky, guitar , blazing harmonic brass, and explosive Afro-Latin percussion – fusing Cuban roots with Blues, Jazz, Caribbean and Brazilian influences.

You will be blown away and energized. They play the Arts Garage, Saturday night at 8 p.m.

Visit www.artsgarage.org for tickets and more info.

 

 Blues: Trampled Under Foot

Enjoy this award-winning Kansas City blues/rock band (soon to be touring with George Thorogood & The Destroyers), at the Delray Center For The Arts, Friday, April 11. (Speaking of George Thorogood, Dave says he’s Bad to the Bone).

 Proceeds benefit the Delray Beach Public Library.

The show starts at 8 p.m. with tickets costing $30 and $55.

Visit www.delraycenterforthearts.org for tickets.

Have a great weekend!

 

 

Weekend Best Bets: Garlic Fest, Golf and Good Causes

Mr. Garlic, the one, the only Tom Johnston.

Mr. Garlic, the one, the only Tom Johnston.

Well, you have a few significant choices for fun and entertainment this weekend.

 

So, rather than make a choice you might as well attend both and then plan to crash on the couch Sunday night.

 

Here goes…..

Garlic Fest

 

Delray Beach is hosting the 15th Annual “Best Stinkin’ Party in Town” at the Garlic Festival. No question, this is one of the best festivals in South Florida….as long as you go with other people who’ll be experiencing halitosis.  It features all that is good about garlic with cooking classes, a Garlic Chef cooking competition, and such culinary delights as Garlic Ice Cream, Argentinean Garlic BBQ, and Garlic Fest Crab Cakes.

 

Just don’t breathe on anyone. You’ll see why it’s the “Best Stinkin’ Party in Town.”

 

What’s even better is that the event is a fund raising source for local non-profits that serve education and arts for youths.

 

The event runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday all along Atlantic Avenue. For more info, visit https://dbgarlicfest.com/

We plan to be there to hear the B Street Band, a tribute to our favorite artist Bruce Springsteen and to hear a great U2 cover band,

“Cover your eyes and you’ll swear it’s Bono,” says Garlic Fest co-organizer Bern Ryan. We trust Bern. We really do.

 

Allianz in Boca

 For your golf enthusiasts (moi!), The Allianz Championship, sponsored by Insperity, tees off Friday morning at the Broken Sound Old Course. It features some senior and PGA legends, including Nick Price, Rocco Mediate, Tom Lehman, Bernhard Langer, Fuzzy Zoeller, and many more.

 

Boca Raton Regional Hospital is the primary charity of the tournament. A total  of 18 other organizations will also receive support.

For more information visit: www.allianzchampionship.com.

 

So…..what’s your choice? A “stinkin’” party or a golf tournament. We’re saying go to both. But if you attend the Garlic Festival first, stay with your friends and don’t breathe on anyone on the golf course.

Here’s a few more best bets.

 

Gift of Life’s 4th Annual 5K Walk for Life

Sunday, February 9, 2014, Palm Beach Plaza, Florida Atlantic University. Be there for a wonderful cause.

Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, Gift of Life is an internationally recognized bone marrow and blood stem cell registry. Through its life-saving work, Gift of Life is a world leader helping children and adults find the matches they need when they need them.

Gift of Life will hold its 4th Annual Walk for Life on Sunday, February 9, 2014. The Certified 5k walk/run is the only event in South Florida that is solely dedicated to raising awareness for bone marrow and blood stem cell transplants. Gift of Life uses funds raised at the Walk for Life to add new donors to the worldwide bone marrow registry. Registering one volunteer donor costs $60. It is the generosity of others that allows us to continue our lifesaving work.

Every donation brings us one step closer to our vision — a match, anytime, anywhere, for anyone.

To register visit: https://support.giftoflife.org/

Arts Garage show benefits Leukemia & Lymphoma Society


You don’t want to miss this benefit show Sunday night at 7 p.m.

This  All star event to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society features 2013 winner for Best Tropical Latin Album Marlow Rosado, Vibraphone Virtuoso Drew Tucker and Saxophone All Star Jesse Jones Jr. Filling in the band is members of Marlows Band La Riquena and Nat Stolkes on Drums fresh off of his tour with Jon Secada.

Trust us, these musicians are top notch and so is the cause.

For tickets visit www.artsgarage.org

 

 

 

Weekend Best Bet: Once Again Delray’s Arts Garage

The Arts Garage's Jazz Project has attracted world class talent to Delray

The Arts Garage’s Jazz Project has attracted world class talent to Delray

If you’re searching for something great to do this weekend, look no further than Delray’s Arts Garage.

Venezuelan pianist- composer Silvano Monasterios and The 4th World Ensemble will be perform Friday, Aug. 30 at 7:30 p.m.

Monasterios was voted best Jazz Musician in Miami by New Times magazine in 2009 and blends Latin rhythms, jazz and world music.

The ensemble performs all original music  composed and arranged by Monasterios.

Exhibiting an insatiable appetite for challenge and change, Monasterios brought his new quintet into the Savant studios and recorded eight new and innovative compositions.

The audience should expect a healthy dose of new music and older favorites.

Heavy on percussion and rhythms, the ensemble’s work is often classified  as Latin Jazz, but in reality it defies that easy description and combines a range of influences including European and American Jazz.

The performance is part of Arts Garage’s renowned Jazz Project series, an endeavor that has won the organization a rabid fan base, tons of press and support from prestigious funders including the Knight Foundation.

New visitors to the Arts Garage are in for a treat. The venue, located in space below the Old School Square Parking Garage, in Delray’s trendy Pineapple Grove, is intimate, has great sound and allows patrons to bring their own wine and snacks.

After the show, make sure to stroll Pineapple Grove which has several excellent restaurants or walk to nearby Atlantic Avenue for a taste of vibrant nightlife. The scene is lively, even during the summer months.

Tickets are $25-$35 in advance, $5 more at the door. Visit www.artsgarage.org for tickets and more information.