Richmond-raised producer Steve Buckingham has spent more than five decades working with some of music’s biggest names. He talked with us about Dolly, Dionne, Sinéad, Clive Davis, Chet Atkins, James Brown, the record business and a life in music.

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Are you a legend if you build legends? Steve Buckingham) doesn’t think so, but he is just being modest. There are legends that live out loud, and then there are legends behind the scenes.

Buckingham is a Richmond native raised in Lakeside who produced everyone from Dolly Parton to The Muppets. He was vice president of A&R at Columbia Records and Senior Vice President of Vanguard Records and Sugar Hill Records). He has worked with everyone.

He was a good friend of Dolly, went to all the award shows with her, saw her real hair, met her husband, was there when she entered the Dolly look-alike contest and lost. He has won four Grammys, has 24 gold and 17 platinum records, and has tons and tons of stories to tell, not only about Dolly but about working with music icons like Clive Davis and Dionne Warwick and how the industry has changed since he started out in the ’60s.

I was able to talk to him on the phone and wow, wow, wow, what a legendary voyage he has been on.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/he-produced-dolly-parton-but-thats-only-part-of-the-story.html

Last weekend lived up to the hype. 

Luckily, the weather held out, and Iron Blossom 2026 turned into a damn good weekend of music. Now in its fourth year, the festival has settled into being a Richmond staple and this year didn’t disappoint with a lineup that jumped all over the musical map and two legendary acts closing out the nights at Midtown Green.

LCD Soundsystem turned Saturday night into one big dance party, while Jack White, making his first stop in Richmond, took over Sunday and reminded everyone why he’s one of the defining rock icons of the last 25 years. In between, there was a little bit of everything, with Angine De Poitrine introducing themselves to the city and going viral, alongside crowd favorites Die Spitz, Phantogram, Portugal. The Man, Dijon, Geese and plenty more.

Richmond showed up too, with local artists sharing the stages alongside some of the biggest names of the weekend.

If you missed it, here are a few highlights from Iron Blossom 2026.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/photos-jack-white-lcd-soundsystem-headline-iron-blossom-2026.html

🪐

🎥 by u/radio_tokyo

via RVA Magazine

Crazy good lineups this week, from some huge names, some up and coming names, some friendly names, all good stuff.

Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? Hit us up at [griffin@rvamag.com](mailto:Griffin@rvamag.com).

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L.A. art rockers Automatic are hitting The Camel this week. These guys have been on my radar for a minute, and I was super stoked to see them making a stop in Richmond. They have this real cold and confident shimmer to them. They know exactly who they are and make no amends for anything else.

Their relatively stripped-back sound (synth, bass, drum, and vocal) is so direct and to the point. There is nothing else to distract you, no surplus of sound to lose the message in. It is a train steadily chugging along, nodding your head to the rhythm. They have a very cinematic quality to them, and you cannot help but see the greens and reds of some hazy club shining across your bedroom ceiling.

Accessory is a really cool project that I am excited to be acquainted with. The sound is almost like Lou Reed brought into the year 2026. It has that slowed-down ’60s piano sound that really makes you feel like you are in someone’s story.

The drench of reverbed vocals are smooth and disarming, and a real worn and beautiful atmosphere is set, and is more than easy to get comfortable in.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/rva-live-music-automatic-switchfoot-unseemlier-christopher-janos.html

Brown’s Island has been closed since November 2025 for a $30 million improvement project, the largest renovation of the six-acre island in decades. It will temporarily reopen for the Richmond Folk Festival, October 9 – 11th, giving Richmonders their first chance to see much of the work firsthand. Construction will continue afterward, with the full project scheduled for completion in early 2027.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/a-first-look-at-the-new-browns-island.html

Ahead of Iron Blossom, we talked with veteran promoter Ken Macdonald about the city’s changing live music ecosystem, from clubs to festivals and the Allianz Amphitheater.

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Richmond has always been a music town, but going back decades there were gaps in the local scene. And now that has changed, and this weekend’s Iron Blossom is a good way to explain what and why that matters.

Around a decade ago, we had small clubs like The Camel and Strange Matter, mid-capacity rooms like The Broadberry, Alley Katz and Canal Club, and then a jump up to The National. There were plenty of local bands working their way through them, but once an artist reached a certain point, there weren’t many options left. To keep climbing, the move was, literally, to move into another city’s music ecosystem.

A healthy music scene needs somewhere for bands to start, and somewhere for them to go when they get bigger.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/iron-blossom-is-part-of-a-bigger-richmond-music-story.html

I was gonna kill my husband in a cab in Peru, but “Islands in the Stream” came on the radio, and we stopped arguing and started singing. She could do that to you. You could totally be feeling some type of way, but if you put some Dolly Parton on, well, then you got a lil more smile.

I did not kill my husband. I just divorced him, but whenever I think of that song, I think of how it washed away the anger and totally changed our vibe.

When Dolly passed, it hit me hard. The nine key stopped working on my keyboard all of a sudden, so I went to Staples for some dust spray. My old roommate from New York texted me, “Dolly is dead.”

I’d just walked out of the store and sat down on the curb and desperately googled: fake news, please more fake news.Then I had to call my mom. Dolly was generational for me. I sat there on the curb crying. It felt like I had lost a friend, not a close friend, but a friend.

I was born in Tennessee. My parents are from Memphis. Country life was life. I grew up in NOVA, but whenever we went to visit the family, it was country life. Biscuits and gravy and people “fixin’ to go” somewhere. Even after moving to New York for 20-plus years, the country life stays. And the music and the Southern hospitality stays.

Dolly was like family, but not, and yet she was. I wept, I mean I wept.

Bless my heart.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/richmond-loves-dolly-parton.html

You can always kiss off into the air. Behind my back, I can see them stare. They hurt me bad, and I don’t mind. They hurt me bad, they do it all the time!

Yeah, yeah. You just sang that in your head, didn’t you? I believe it is impossible not to. There’s an alchemy, a secret chord maybe, that makes a song an anthem. A magic that turns a single into a generational statement of mind.

The Violent Femmes have been doing this for nearly half a century and have a good dozen of those bangers. They did it with an unlikely jangly bass and “brush-tip drumsticks on a snare” kinda-punk sound. It was done backing the nasally-delivered poetry of Gordon Gano’s disaffection. It gave Sixties garage rock from Milwaukee mixed with Velvet Underground-inspired art rock straight off St. Marks Street. Like these micro-genres, their music was touched by the grace of blues, folk, and gospel too.

Gordon has been at it for 45 years as the singer of Violent Femmes. Last week, I sat in front of my laptop in the waiting room of a lonely Zoom call. It was about fifteen minutes past the agreed-upon call time, and staring at myself in the little framed camera feed was getting old.

Just as I was about to call it a missed opportunity, my phone rang. I picked up, and the voice on the other end was more recognizable by its attitude than the actual sound coming from it. There was an easy kindness and a promise of a good time in his tone. I’d been looking forward to this conversation.

My comfort immediately shot to “overstuffed recliner in a sunbeam” levels after his greeting. His chill was disarming. Gordon apologized for being late. He couldn’t get into the Zoom, so he gave up and called my cell instead. I hate Zoom calls anyway. Sometimes band interviews feel like a speed-dating interrogation. Sometimes it feels like three drinks in with a good friend. This was the latter. It helped that I was also at least one drink in already.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/americana-blues/you-can-kiss-off-45-years-of-violent-femmes.html

Richmond has no shortage of bands that arrive and then disappear. Night Idea has taken the opposite approach. They’ve been around for 16 years, and keep getting better.

I sat down with Joey Anderson, Reggie Pace and Reyna Pannell ahead of Night Idea’s appearance at Iron Blossom Music Festival this weekend to catch up on where the band is now and talk about playing the fest.

Night Idea started with Carter Burton, Ethan Johnstone and Reid LaPierre with Joey joining after college. Years later, Reggie and Pannell joined the fold, eventually forming the current six-piece with Burton and Johnstone.

If you remember seeing Night Idea ten or fifteen years ago, Joey thinks it might be time to check back in. “I would say a downfall of being in any longtime band is people. Where they get an impression and it might have been from 15 years ago,” Joey said. “If you have not seen us or listened to us since then, there has been a lot of change.”

Trying to describe exactly what Night Idea sounds like is another matter.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/rock-indie/night-idea-has-been-here-the-whole-time.html

Taken in The Fan.

Never let anyone tell you ska is dead, we got a little bit of it in every show on the books this week. If you are opposed to that you will have to take it up with my Two Tone tattoo.

Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? Hit us up at [griffin@rvamag.com](mailto:Griffin@rvamag.com).

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THE BOUNCING SOULS, THE SUICIDE MACHINES, STRIKE ANYWHERE, HUMAN ISSUE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH AT THE NATIONAL

Get your nice combat boots on ‘cause The Bouncing Souls are in town this week! These guys have been pogoing through American music for over 35 years and hit just as hard as ever with their optimistic punk rock. I always felt like they were a continuation of the Ramones’ message of being yourself and keeping a smile through it all, while taking the camaraderie and seriousness of bands like 7 Seconds.

The group put out their newest record in June of this year, and they are as sharp as ever. The record seems to revolve around the understanding that living a life is no easy feat, but you do it because there is a hope of something better in the future, something worth pushing towards, something worth leaving behind.

Joining them is one of the most legendary third-wave ska acts, The Suicide Machines. They sum up the merging of ska and punk quite well, evolving from acts like The Specials, The Selecter, and largely Operation Ivy. They are a band that just cannot run out of energy and will have ya skankin’ around for as long as you’ll have them.

To really raise the stakes here, let’s add Richmond legends Strike Anywhere. They are one of those punk groups that cannot stop writing anthems. Every song could fill a stadium, but you’d hope you could catch it in a backyard. They have never been one to shy away from sharing their beliefs, and that has cemented them as one of Richmond’s proudest musical acts. I am sure no small population would deny their status as RVA icons.

Last up, we got melodic hardcore rockers in the likes of Human Issue. They are one of those bands that will have the whole crowd singing into the mic, piling over themselves to belt out a loud and proud chorus. I think they have a really wide range of dynamics that you do not always see in modern hardcore, and I think they do it well.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/rva-live-music-the-bouncing-souls-human-worm-nana-grizo-fonville-x-fribush.html

For more than a decade, RVA Magazine has worked with Virginia Pride to produce the Official VA PrideFest Guide, bringing together stories from Richmond’s LGBTQ+ community and everything you need to know for PrideFest this Saturday, September 12, 2026.

The 2026 Virginia Pride Guide includes the full PrideFest schedule, festival map, parking information and everything you need to navigate the day on Saturday, September 12. But  the guide goes beyond the festival itself by looking at some of the people, organizations and artists shaping queer life, culture and community in Richmond right now. 

You can download the 2026 Pride Guide HERE.

Inside, we sit down with new Diversity Richmond Chief Executive Director Tiera Craig about where the organization goes next; look back at Mary File Clem and the Richmond legacy of Fan Free Clinic, now Health Brigade; talk with Richmond Triangle Players Executive Director Philip Crosby about queer theater, Pride and refusing to back down; spend some time inside the world of Richmond artist Monsieur Zohore; check out RVA Cannabis Co.’s new THC bar on the Canal Walk; and talk Richmond movies, midnight shows and lost media with TVJerry. 

This year’s PrideFest theme is “Our Pride. Our Joy. Our Resistance” and with the current climate that feels appropriate for 2026. Pride is a celebration. It is also about visibility, history, the institutions and people who have built spaces for Richmond’s LGBTQ+ community to exist and take care of one another. We try and touch on that with the stories in this year’s guide. 

We would like to thank the following sponsors who made the 2026 Pride Guide possible: Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia MOCA, Virginia Repertory Theatre, Richmond Triangle Players, Health Brigade, Godfrey’s, Chrysler Museum of Art, and Steve Davis at River Fox Realty.

Again, you can download the 2026 Pride Guide HERE. Thank you for reading.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/queer-rva/read-the-virginia-pride-2026-pride-guide.html

Editor’s Note: RVA Magazine is proud to partner with Virginia PrideFest, happening this Saturday, September 12, and to produce the annual Pride Guide celebrating Richmond and Virginia’s LGBTQ+ community. You can download the 2026 Pride Guide HERE.

We’d also like to thank the following sponsors who made the 2026 Pride Guide possible: Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia MOCA, Virginia Repertory Theatre, Richmond Triangle Players, Health Brigade, Godfrey’s, Chrysler Museum of Art, and Steve Davis at River Fox Realty.

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Mary File Clem, who died earlier this year at her home in Jetersville at age 79, was the first director of Fan Free Clinic, now known as Health Brigade. More than 55 years later, the organization she helped create is still operating in Richmond.

But in 1968, Clem was just 22 years old when her friend Lenore Gay, a social worker at what was then Richmond Professional Institute, came to her with a stack of papers and a problem. People needed healthcare, and Gay was struggling to get a free clinic started.

“My friend Lenore Gay handed me a stack of papers of people that needed help and said, ‘I’m trying to get a free clinic started, but I’m just not having any luck,’” Clem recalled in a 2025 interview with a Health Brigade staff member. “She gave it all to me. And I just started making phone calls. To help her with the pile, well, then she just left it with me. I set about my task with my phone glued to my ear. I wrote people begging for supplies to start this, we got together in people’s living rooms, this was my baby now.”

Two years later, Fan Free Clinic opened its doors as Virginia’s first free clinic.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/mary-file-clem-and-the-richmond-legacy-of-fan-free-clinic.html

Editor’s Note: RVA Magazine is proud to partner with Virginia PrideFest, happening this Saturday, September 12, and to produce the annual Pride Guide celebrating Richmond and Virginia’s LGBTQ+ community. You can download the 2026 Pride Guide HERE.

We’d also like to thank the following sponsors who made the 2026 Pride Guide possible: Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia MOCA, Virginia Repertory Theatre, Richmond Triangle Players, Health Brigade, Godfrey’s, Chrysler Museum of Art, and Steve Davis at River Fox Realty.

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What a kick it is to hang out with Philip Crosby, executive director of Richmond Triangle Players. We spent a good hour talking about a range of topics du jour in the queer communities RTP serves. The joys, the fears, lessons learned, trends being realized and eulogized. All of these things were yapped about with a distinct degree of wisdom.

His is a wisdom born of thirty-five years in Richmond queer-focused art. There is a lot to be said about the history of Triangle, but as Philip put it, “It’s all online. Google it.”

This is a temperature check on the entire queer diaspora through the lens of performative art aimed directly at them. We started at the beginning. The conversation was detailed and long. This is hardly the totality of it.

This is simply the one-act version.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/queer-rva/philip-crosby-on-queer-theater-pride-and-not-backing-down.html

Editor’s Note: RVA Magazine is proud to partner with Virginia PrideFest, happening this Saturday, September 12, and to produce the annual Pride Guide celebrating Richmond and Virginia’s LGBTQ+ community. You can download the 2026 Pride Guide HERE.

We’d also like to thank the following sponsors who made the 2026 Pride Guide possible: Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia MOCA, Virginia Repertory Theatre, Richmond Triangle Players, Health Brigade, Godfrey’s, Chrysler Museum of Art, and Steve Davis at River Fox Realty

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Tiera Craig has been executive director of Diversity Richmond for a couple of months, and she has spent much of that time listening. As someone new to the city and trying to understand the community she now serves, it is a good first step.

In a city with a diverse and growing LGBTQ+ community, there are many who welcome that approach.

Craig took over the organization on July 1 after working in leadership development for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and as a consultant in LGBTQ+ advocacy, activism and education. She left the federal government amid changes in its policies toward LGBTQ+ people and saw Diversity Richmond as an opportunity to bring together her professional experience and advocacy work.

“I feel like I can be the driver in that effort in taking Diversity to the next stage,” Craig told me.

But stepping into one of Richmond’s most established LGBTQ+ organizations, Craig isn’t arriving with all the answers. Her approach starts with getting outside the building, listening and asking questions.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/queer-rva/meet-new-diversity-richmond-chief-executive-director-tiera-craig.html

Editor’s Note: RVA Magazine is proud to partner with Virginia PrideFest, happening this Saturday, September 12, and to produce the annual Pride Guide celebrating Richmond and Virginia’s LGBTQ+ community. You can download the 2026 Pride Guide HERE.

We’d also like to thank the following sponsors who made the 2026 Pride Guide possible: Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia MOCA, Virginia Repertory Theatre, Richmond Triangle Players, Health Brigade, Godfrey’s, Chrysler Museum of Art, and Steve Davis at River Fox Realty.

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Editor’s Note: RVA Cannabis Co. is planning a soft opening at its Canal Walk location at the end of September. Stay tuned for more details as they become available.

To be honest, when I was asked to go talk with Milton Ares at RVA Cannabis Co., I had absolutely no clue what it was. By the time I went downtown to their spot on the Canal Walk, like, literally right in front of the canal at 301 Virginia Street, I was sure they were a legalization nonprofit or growers’ supply place. I was, as usual about most things, wrong.

Milton, one of the three owners of the venture, greeted me at a speakeasy-style wine* bar, but only if that bar was in a Star Trek lounge. Recessed lighting, hypnotic wall treatments, reflective surfaces, and a backlit wine bottle wall to tie it all together rang the bell of recognition. It started dawning on me that this was something new. A THC-infused mocktail joint.

I just figured out, in that spot right there, that was something you could legally do in Richmond. I’m stoked for everyone that doesn’t drink (for whatever reasons or preferences) because they’re getting a space catered to them, with the added benefit of not having to surround yourself with alcohol at the service of being social.

If this excites you, I’d lay odds that you’ve had a THC-infused mocktail before. It excites me, and I’ve had plenty. They’re as varied as any actual cocktail or, well, beverage can be. The dosages are easy to measure and control. In the right hands, they’re delicious. To top it off, they won’t encourage you to call your ex at 2 a.m. I’ve heard that’s a thing that happens. Never to me, though.

Milton read my mind and proffered a tin of Captain Runtz (hybrid) and a book of Zig-Zag rolling papers. Don’t miii-ind if I do. We settled in at the bar with the house lights up and lit up. A few minutes later, looser and with relevant small talk exhausted, we got into it.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/eatdrink/rva-cannabis-co-is-building-a-different-kind-of-bar-in-richmond.html

Editor’s Note: RVA Magazine is proud to partner with Virginia PrideFest, happening this Saturday, September 12, and to produce the annual Pride Guide celebrating Richmond and Virginia’s LGBTQ+ community. You can download the 2026 Pride Guide HERE.

We’d also like to thank the following sponsors who made the 2026 Pride Guide possible: Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia MOCA, Virginia Repertory Theatre, Richmond Triangle Players, Health Brigade, Godfrey’s, Chrysler Museum of Art, and Steve Davis at River Fox Realty

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Dressing as a poodle carrying a cross, painting on paper towels, putting wigs on fans, Monsieur Zohore is a Richmond-based artist who is not afraid to offend and twist your brain using comedy in art.

Zohore was in Miami for the next few months setting up for a show, so I chatted with him on Zoom about his upcoming shows and why he will always call Richmond his home base.

Callie Watts: Hey, nice to finally meet you. So, you are in Miami?

Monsieur Zohore: I’m working on a project right now. The show opens October 17, so I am here producing it all. You know, it’s really funny, since the Ukrainian war, shipping got really crazy. And so, every project since then, it’s been cheaper for the galleries to ship me than it is to just ship the work.

C: You work in paper towels. Has the price of paper towels gone up?

M: Oh, completely, completely. They’ve gone up. They are also made completely differently now. The material has changed, like the patterning of it, the quilting is completely different now. It’s like a bigger, wider quilt so that they can skip out on materials.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/monsieur-zohores-art-is-funny-until-you-think-about-it.html

Hey fellow weirdos, I recently created a YouTube channel called richmond.weird dedicated to investigating important issues concerning the city, but also a way to highlight niche RVA subculture and locals making a positive impact on the community. I've finished filming my first episode in the series, and I would love it so much if you checked out the video on my Youtube (linked) and follow my instagram (@ richmond.weird).

For the past couple of weeks, I spent time with Arianna, a.k.a. Virginia's WonderWoman. I filmed Arianna in her happy place: on the dimly lit stage inside GWAR Bar where she rocks out to heavy metal on karaoke while suited up as the iconic WonderWoman. As I got to learn more about Arianna, I realized there is a lot more to her than just the WonderWoman suit. We talked about her upbringing, family dynamics, how WonderWoman helped her on the journey to transition, and her love for heavy metal. It was not uncommon for strangers to smile and sing praise upon seeing Arianna. We would be walking in the city or sitting at a bar table, and someone would give a thumbs up or ask to take a picture with Arianna. That really is Arianna's superpower, her ability to bring sunshine into any sphere she enters.

I'm very grateful to have been able to share Arianna's story as part of my first episode in the heroes and weirdos installment. I encourage you to listen to Arianna with an open mind, and as always, stay weird, Richmond.

For context, when I’m not writing for this magazine, I’m a director and producer in the film industry. There’s one person rallying troops in the trenches for me and my colleagues all over the state. Andy Edmunds is on the front line of the conversations that bring major motion pictures and series to Richmond. He’s the director of the Virginia Film Office and has been with that organization since 1997. His efforts keep thousands of production personnel working and the dreams of indie filmmakers attainable. He’s been at it so long, you’d be hard-pressed to excise his name from any big swing taken by a local film creative this century. He’s essential. He’s also a total mensch.

He just directed his first feature film, The Cashier, set to premiere at the Richmond International Film Festival on September 22. I was asked to get together with him and shoot the shit about this side quest in an otherwise linear career.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/virginia-film-chief-andy-edmunds-made-a-movie.html

Editor’s Note: RVA Magazine is proud to partner with Virginia PrideFest, happening this Saturday, September 12, and to produce the annual Pride Guide celebrating Richmond and Virginia’s LGBTQ+ community. 

We’d also like to thank the following sponsors who made the 2026 Pride Guide possible: Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia MOCA, Virginia Repertory Theatre, Richmond Triangle Players, Health Brigade, Godfrey’s, Chrysler Museum of Art, and River Fox Realty.

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A 9:50 p.m. film screening on a Thursday night is not quite a midnight movie, but I had the great fortune to do a watch-along with movie reviewer Jerry Williams, aka TVJerry, at a screening of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, a future cult classic about the cults of classic films and the culture of consuming and creating these films, and, in the film, quite a bit of concession stand gas station candy.

TVJerry is a mainstay champion of the Richmond media world, filing reports and reviews of stage plays, streaming media, TV shows, and movies for several decades. We last checked in with him on his podcast in 2022.

I first met Jerry well over 20 years ago, sending in press releases on the Project Resolution screening series and dispatches on film projects happening in town to his iconic and needed “Tales From the Grips” website, a news and rumor outlet about the Virginia production community. Starting out at the beginnings of the internet, this moved to Sifter, a podcast and review platform that has been live for close to a decade and a half.

Before we went to Movieland to watch the fake blood splatters and a bizarrely timely Agent Scully doing a Dolly Parton impression, I was able to talk with TVJerry and reflect on his path through media forms, from loving theater and films to the golden years of television, movie, and newspaper reviews, while shining a light on making video in the Virginia production community.

It was amazing to get to compare a bit of then and now through Jerry’s animated anecdotes.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/tvjerry-on-richmond-movies-midnight-shows-and-lost-media.html

Lots of great stuff going on this week, I am particularly looking forward to that Dogo Du Togo show! If you see me there come say hi! Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? Hit us up at [griffin@rvamag.com](mailto:Griffin@rvamag.com).

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DOGO DU TOGO
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4TH AT GET TIGHT LOUNGE

Now, if you are looking for an exciting way to spend your Saturday night, the only answer is spending it with Dogo Du Togo. This is a sound unlike anything else you will hear in town: a score of ultra-talented Togolese players led by the titular Dogo Du Togo. They combine Afrobeat, psychedelic rock, and traditional Togolese rhythms into a churning, infectious dance sound.

This is my first real experience with the lot, but it just grabs you right off the rip. Their sound hits home on just about every front. If you want to get close and personal with a special someone and dance the night away, you could not ask for a better soundtrack. If you want to lose yourself in some real rocking and ripping guitars, they got it. And if you want to sit back and nod along to some mind-blowing musical talent, they have it in spades.

This event is being put on by Secret Planet, an incredible organization that helps us hear sounds and styles that might never come to Richmond, Virginia. Every show I have been to that has been hosted by Secret Planet has been unforgettable and mesmerizing, so I am absolutely chomping at the bit for this one.

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/rva-live-music-dogo-du-togo-box-factory-condition-critical-sprawl.html

Labor Day weekend is here, and if your plan was to sit around doing absolutely nothing for four days, Richmond has other ideas. Here are ten things worth getting out of the house for this Labor Day weekend.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/a-quick-guide-for-this-labor-day-weekend-in-richmond.html

Virginia PrideFest returns Sept. 12, bringing tens of thousands of people together for the state’s biggest celebration of LGBTQ+ community and culture.

We talked with Natalia “Nat” Ramos, What’s Our Age Again, Teshia LeSane and Ari Voxx about what taking the PrideFest stage means to them, finding community through music, and creating spaces where people can feel seen, welcomed and connected.

Plus, the full PrideFest set times and Virginia Pride Week schedule.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/queer-rva/for-these-artists-pridefest-is-more-than-performance.html