The RVA East End Festival, a benefit to support Richmond students, returns Saturday, Sept. 24, from noon to 9 p.m. at Henry L. Marsh III Elementary School. (Photo courtesy RVA East End Festival)
After two years of silence, music is ringing again at the RVA East End Festival.
The festival was started in 2016 by local educators and community leaders to raise money for Richmond Public Schools’ elementary, middle and high schools in the East End. The 2020 festival would’ve been the fifth anniversary for the fundraiser, but it was postponed due to the pandemic.
“We were planning on having [a] fifth-year anniversary, and then COVID happened,” says festival co-chair Marilyn Heckstall, former pastor of Asbury Church Hill United Methodist Church. “But I believe in the midst of all things, whether we perceive them as these bigger challenges … God always [provides] new possibilities.”
Over the years, the festival has raised over $400,000 to enhance arts programs for city students, with money going toward various projects, including a new dance studio at Armstrong High School, as well as repairing or buying instruments and purchasing concert attire, choral risers and visual art supplies for Armstrong and other schools. This year, the festival aims to raise $100,000 to purchase instruments for students who are unable to buy or rent instruments, with a focus on stringed instruments to give the students a variety of options.
The free festival will take place at Henry L. Marsh III Elementary School on Sept. 24 from noon to 9 p.m. In addition to entertainment, there will be food trucks and vendors. Performers include rapper BlackLiq, Afro-Cuban and Latin Caribbean group Kevin Davis & Ban Caribe, the Richmond Symphony, young musicians from the city, and festival co-chair and jazz musician James “Saxsmo” Gates.
Gates, director of the Dr. Billy Taylor Jazz Studies program at Virginia State University, was raised in Fairfield Court and attended schools in the city’s East End, so he didn’t hesitate when asked to co-chair this year’s festival. Gates, who believes music teaches students self-discipline and bolsters their confidence, is also keeping a promise he made years ago to a special person.
In the early 1980s, when he was attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, Gates heard that Ella Fitzgerald would be performing at the Boston Symphony Hall. He had no money for a ticket, so he waited outside the venue during a snowstorm in a thin jacket to catch a glimpse of “The First Lady of Song.” Eventually, Fitzgerald exited the building and walked up to Gates. The Newport News native then sang a song just for him — in exchange for a promise.
“[She said] ‘I need you to promise me that you’re going to do everything in your power to keep this music alive,’ ” Gates recalls. “ ‘You got to promise us, because we’ll be gone, and we’re dependent on young lives like yourself to make sure you keep this music alive.’ ”
Gates has kept his word. When he performs at the festival, he plans to have students sit onstage so they can be up close to the music. He also intends to give a music student from Richmond Public Schools a chance to play a song with him and become their mentor.
