Mayor Bobby Dyer described it as “a major snafu” at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. “It’s our duty that when we have any event at the Oceanfront that there’s a positive light on it. This was not a positive light.”

He recommended that in order to rebuild trust, the festival organizers should commit to a long-term partnership, possibly for three-to-five years, and that the city must take a more proactive role.

“The city has been left out of the decision loop in terms of what goes on in operations,” said Dyer, who wants a contract with the festival team outlining the city’s expectations.

Festival organizers notified the city Friday afternoon, just hours after tickets went on sale, that the Oct. 12-13 event was canceled and they intend to reschedule it in April. Soon after the city was notified Friday, Pharrell Williams posted on social media that the festival wasn’t ready yet and ticket-buyers would be refunded.

While organizers are eyeing a move back to April, City Manager Patrick Duhaney said the decision to change the festival date hasn’t been solidified by the City Council.

Something in the Water was first held at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront in 2019. Williams was originally asked to organize an event in late April to provide structured entertainment for college students who had been coming to the resort area each spring.

After inclement weather forced Williams to cancel the festival’s third day in 2023, he decided to move it to October this year in hopes of better conditions.

Duhaney noted money the city set aside for sponsorship — as much as $2 million — has not been spent. He read a letter from the festival team which indicated that issues with the lineup of performers prompted Williams to drop the October date.

“After spending considerable time with members of the music community, we have collectively decided that a festival in April will be far more substantial and impactful for the city of Virginia Beach and allow some of the participants who had committed and endured conflicts beyond Pharrell’s control to participate in April,” the festival organizers wrote.

The festival team promised to have “a concrete plan set within this calendar year.”

Councilmembers Amelia Ross-Hammond and Jennifer Rouse, liaisons to the festival, said Friday’s announcement came as a surprise to both of them.

“We felt blindsided,” said Ross-Hammond.

The two of them held several meetings with city officials and the festival organizers over the weekend.

“We received a lot of reactions, and questions and frustrations and concerns,” said Rouse. “We made sure to share that with the Something in the Water team as well as the city.”

Rouse is pushing the festival organizers to set the April date and lineup sooner than later, she said.

“They want to make an intentional effort to rebuild credibility and trust,” said Rouse.

Councilman Barbara Henley said the postponement is more than just a disappointment to business owners.

“It’s cost a lot of people some serious money,” she said, citing that some hotels are not going to have the income they were counting on.

“We take this as a learning experience,” Henley said. “We have to set benchmarks.”

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com

Tito was the third of nine Jackson children, which include global superstars Michael and sister Janet, part of a music-making family whose songs are still beloved today.

“It’s with heavy hearts that we announce that our beloved father, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Tito Jackson is no longer with us. We are shocked, saddened and heartbroken. Our father was an incredible man who cared about everyone and their well-being,” his sons TJ, Taj and Taryll said in a statement posted on Instagram late Sunday.

The Jackson 5 included brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael. The family group, which was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, produced several No. 1 hits in the 1970s including “ABC,” “I Want You Back” and “I’ll Be There.”

The Jackson 5 became one of the biggest names in music under the guidance of their father, Joe Jackson, a steelworker and guitar player who supported his wife and nine children in Gary, Indiana. As the family’s music careers took off, they relocated to California.

Born on Oct. 15, 1953, Toriano Adaryll “Tito” Jackson was the least-heard member of the group as a background singer who played guitar. His brothers launched solo careers, including Michael, who became one of the world’s biggest performers known as The King of Pop.

Michael Jackson died at age 50 on June 25, 2009.

Speaking to The Associated Press in December 2009, Jackson said his younger brother’s death pulled the family closer together.

“I would say definitely it brought us a step closer to each other. To recognize that the love we have for each other when one of us is not here, what a great loss,” he said, adding he would personally never “be at peace with it.”

“There’s still moments when I just can’t believe it. So I think that’s never going to go away,” he said.

In 2014, Jackson said he and his brothers still felt Michael Jackson’s absence in their shows, which continued with international tours.

“I don’t think we will ever get used to performing without him. He’s dearly missed,” he said, noting that Michael’s spirit “is with us when we are performing. It gives us a lot of positive energy and puts a lot of smiles on our faces.”

Days before his death, Jackson posted a message on his Facebook page from Germany on Sept. 11, where he visited a memorial to Michael Jackson with his brothers.

“Before our show in Munich, my brothers Jackie, Marlon, and I, visited the beautiful memorial dedicated to our beloved brother, Michael Jackson. We’re deeply grateful for this special place that honors not only his memory but also our shared legacy. Thank you for keeping his spirit alive,” he wrote.

Tito Jackson was the last of the nine Jackson siblings to release a solo project with his 2016 debut, “Tito Time.” He released a song in 2017, “One Way Street,” and told the AP in 2019 that he was working on a sophomore album.

Jackson said he purposely held back from pursuing a solo career because he wanted to focus on raising his three sons, TJ, Taj and Taryll, who formed their own music group, 3T. Jackson’s website offers a link to a single featuring 3T and Stevie Wonder titled, “Love One Another.”

Tito Jackson also is survived by his brothers Jermaine, Randy, Marlon and Jackie, his sisters Janet, Rebbie and La Toya and their mother, Katherine. Their father died in 2018.

Jackson’s death was first reported by Entertainment Tonight.

Underneath stage lights, he sits at a piano and watches audiences burst into applause upon hearing opening notes — to songs he composed nearly 50 years ago.

It shocks him every time. And it happens all the time.

“‘How do these young people know this record?'” he said he often asks himself. “‘How many of them weren’t even born when I made those records?’

“But I guess they’ve somehow stood the test of time.”

(Yes, Mr. Hancock, indeed they have.)

Hancock, considered one of the best jazz musicians to play and influence the genre, and his All-Star Band will perform next Sunday at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk.

Hancock has 14 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year in 2008 for “River: The Joni Letters” and a lifetime achievement award in 2016. Mentioning Hancock in his autobiography, Miles Davis wrote: “Herbie was the step after Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, and I haven’t heard anybody yet who has come after him.”

Hancock’s career began in childhood. As a child prodigy growing up in Chicago in the 1940s and ’50s, he performed a Mozart piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11. He took up jazz in high school, and, after double-majoring in music and electrical engineering at Grinnell College, he worked for two years as a session musician before signing as an artist with Blue Note Records.

His first album, “Takin’ Off,” produced what is now considered a jazz standard, “Watermelon Man.”

Shortly afterward, Hancock joined Davis’ Second Great Quintet and played with the group for about five years — with other jazz legends too, including tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams.

Hancock began composing scores and soundtracks for films such as the 1966 feature, “Blow Up.”

He left the quintet and formed the band The Headhunters. Their 1973 album, “Head Hunters,” was the first jazz album to go platinum — aided by the record’s hit single “Chameleon,” which will be featured in the Norfolk concert.

No two Hancock concerts are exactly alike, he said in a phone interview.

“It’s jazz,” he said. “It’s always improvisation.”

Still, there is a structure to the show, starting with what he calls “overture,” which incorporates melodies, bass lines, chords, and various parts and portions of songs he has composed. Riffing off the predetermined portions, the piece evolves differently every night.

A closing number features elements of “Chameleon.”

“And people — we’re lucky that — that, that they go crazy after hearing the beginning of that piece.”

Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8138, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com

___

If you go

When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 22

Where: Chrysler Hall, 215 St. Paul’s Blvd., Norfolk

Tickets: Start at $36.75

Details: vafest.org

The announcement came in a letter addressed to the state of Virginia that was posted Friday afternoon across the music festival’s social media pages, beginning with:

“Dearest Virginia, I love you with all my heart. Nobody loves you more than I do. Virginia doesn’t deserve better, Virginia deserves THE BEST.”

The letter stated that the festival, scheduled for Oct. 12 and 13 at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, “just isn’t ready yet” and that to “get this right” it would be postponed until next spring.

The announcement was made hours after tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. for Virginia residents and lines formed at the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater early Friday morning. Williams’ letter stated that passes purchased with a credit or debit card would be refunded. Cash purchases would be refunded at the box office.

Virginia Beach City Manager Patrick Duhaney emailed the City Council with news around 3:30 p.m. Friday. He stated that his staff would discuss the next steps with the council.  The postponement is also a hit for some businesses, such as hotels that will see a wave of canceled reservations. Hotelier and former City Councilman John Uhrin said that by canceling so close to the date “you then have turned down other business you could have had.”

Something in the Water was last held in April 2023 but was moved to the fall to coincide with the release of an animated Lego-themed movie about Williams’ life, “Piece by Piece.”

Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8139, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com

Stacy Parker contributed to the article.

The special “locals only” sale will begin at 10 a.m. and last through 5 p.m. Friday in person at the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater box office at 3550 Cellar Door Way in Virginia Beach. The festival lineup also is expected to be revealed Friday.

The festival, launched in 2019 by the Virginia Beach native Williams, will feature concerts Oct. 12 and 13 on the beach at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. And on Friday morning, music fans with a Virginia ZIP code will able to purchase either a general admission two-day festival pass for $180 or a VIP two-day festival pass for $450. IDs will be checked.

Something in the Water was last held in April 2023 and featured headlining rappers such as Lil Wayne, A$AP Rocky and Busta Rhymes along with the popular folk group Mumford & Sons.

This year, the festival was moved to the fall to coincide with the release of an animated Lego-themed movie about Williams’ life, “Piece by Piece.”

Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8139, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com

The Cooke Book: The Music of Sam Cooke starring Darrian Ford. Featuring more than 20 classics from Cooke’s songbook, including gospel to pop. 7:30 p.m. Saturday at The American Theatre, 125 E. Mellen St., Hampton. Tickets start at $25. To buy online, visit hamptonarts.org.

NashFest 757 will feature “Hot Chicken, Hard Drinks, and Music City Sounds!” Noon to 10 p.m. Saturday at Town Point Park, Waterside Drive, Norfolk. Admission is free. For more information, including vendors, visit festevents.org.

“Misery,” presented by the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach. 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, through Oct. 6. 550 Barberton Drive. Tickets start at $25. Season passes or single ticket discount options available. To buy online, visit ltvb.com.

Parker McCollum brings his “Burn it Down” tour to Portsmouth. Opening are Chayce Beckham, Ashley Cooke. 7:30 p.m. Sept. 19 at Atlantic Union Bank Pavilion, 16 Crawford Circle. Tickets start at $25. For more information or to buy online, visit pavilionconcerts.com.

Chelsey Green and The Green Project, part of the Arts for All Community Concert Series. 7:30 p.m. Sept. 19 at Ferguson Center for the Arts, Peebles Theatre, 1 Avenue of the Arts, Newport News. Tickets start at $10. To buy online, visit fergusoncenter.org.

Events may change. Check before attending.

Hickory High and Hickory Middle schools will have synchronous virtual instruction that day, meaning students will log on to their school computers for class. Southeastern Elementary and Hickory Elementary will dismiss students at 1 p.m.

Country music star Luke Bryan will bring his “Farm Tour” to Heritage Park, 3444 S. Battlefield Blvd. in Chesapeake, for a 6 p.m. show. Parking will open at 2 p.m.

In a message sent to parents and posted on the schools’ websites, officials said that the division is “committed to the safety and security of our students and staff” and made the changes after receiving updated information about the concert’s “anticipated community impact.”

After-school activities were also canceled and school officials said the elementary afternoon bus routes might experience delays. Students at the elementary schools who were scheduled to attend the Oceana Air Show will still do so. Breakfast and lunch will still be served at the elementary schools.

During the pandemic, many divisions provided their students with devices to complete online assignments. Since virtual learning became widespread in 2020, some divisions have used the option instead of giving students a “snow day” during bad weather. In April, Norfolk schools moved to virtual learning because of safety concerns regarding the solar eclipse.

Nour Habib, nour.habib@virginiamedia.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kendrick Lamar will pop out on the NFL’s biggest stage next year: The Grammy winner will headline the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show in New Orleans.

The NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation announced Sunday that Lamar would lead the halftime festivities from the Caesars Superdome on Feb. 9. The rap megastar, who has won 17 Grammys, said he’s looking forward to bringing hip-hop to the NFL’s championship game, where he performed as a guest artist with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent and Eminem in 2022.

“Rap music is still the most impactful genre to date,” Lamar said in a statement. “And I’ll be there to remind the world why. They got the right one.”

Lamar, 37, has experienced massive success since his debut album “good kid, m.A.A.d city” in 2012. Since then, he’s accumulated 17 Grammy wins and became the first non-classical, non-jazz musician to win a Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 album “DAMN.”

The rapper’s latest album “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” was released in 2022. He was featured on the song “Like That” with Future and Metro Boomin on a track that spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this year. He also scored another hit with “Not Like Us.”

In 2016, Lamar gave a stunning seven-minute performance of tracks such as “The Blacker the Berry” and “Alright” at the 58th Grammy Awards. Lamar dazzled as an opener two years later at the Grammys with a performance of “XXX.”

In June, Lamar turned his Juneteenth “Pop Out” concert into a celebration of Los Angeles unity. It came on the heels of his rap battle with Drake during the three-hour concert featuring a mix of p-and-coming LA rappers and stars including Tyler, The Creator, Steve Lacy and YG.

Roc Nation founder Jay-Z called Lamar a “once-in-a-generation” artist and performer.

“His deep love for hip-hop and culture informs his artistic vision,” Jay-Z said. “He has an unparalleled ability to define and influence culture globally. Kendrick’s work transcends music, and his impact will be felt for years to come.”

Roc Nation and Emmy-winning producer Jesse Collins will serve as co-executive producers of the halftime show. The creative direction of Lamar’s performance will be provided by pgLang, a creative company founded by Lamar and Dave Free — who has previously directed the rapper’s music videos.

“Time and time again, Kendrick has proven his unique ability to craft moments that resonate, redefine, and ultimately shake the very foundation of hip-hop,” said Seth Dudowsky, the head of music at the NFL.

Last year, Usher shined with a star-studded show with guests including H.E.R., Jermaine Dupri, Lil Jon, Ludacris and Alicia Keys.

“The Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show is a celebration of the music we love and the incredible artists who make it, all on the world’s biggest stage,” said Oliver Schusser, the vice president of Apple Music and Beats.

According to a timeline of the studio’s 2025 films, the film will come to theaters on May 9. The musical will be directed by Michel Gondry and produced by Williams. Gondry won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2005 as a writer for “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” which he also directed.

“Atlantis” is written by Martin Hynes, one of the writers of “Toy Story 4,” and Steven Levenson, who co-wrote “tick, tick… BOOM!” and “Dear Evan Hansen.”

Multiple music industry headliners have signed onto the project, according to IMDB. The site lists R&B superstar Mary J. Blige, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Portsmouth native Missy Elliott and rapper André 3000 as castr members.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph, winner of the 2024 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for “The Holdovers,” will star along with actor Kelvin Harrison Jr., who will play the lead role.

“Atlantis” has begun filming in the resort city. In June, the Virginia Beach Fishing Pier was taken over by a crew shooting a scene. The movie is set in 1977, prompting classic cars and vintage-clad extras to settle at the Oceanfront.

The musical will join another upcoming movie under the Virginia Beach native’s repertoire.

“Piece by Piece,” the story of Williams’ development as an artist using animated Lego pieces, is scheduled for theatrical release in October. The animated film will also feature Timbaland, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes.

Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com

The popular parade — which includes more than 150 entries of school bands, local businesses and nonprofits and elected officials — spans roughly 2 miles. The lineup begins at 9 a.m. at Booker T. Washington Middle School (3700 Chestnut Ave.) and the parade will kick off at 10 a.m. Participants will march to the church grounds of Zion Baptist Church at 2016 Jefferson Ave.

The festival and Andrew Shannon Gospel Music Celebration will be held at the Zion Baptist Church grounds at noon — immediately after the parade. The festival will feature a concert with singer and producer Luther Barnes and local performers, food vendors, and stands from local businesses and community service organizations.

Parade founder Andrew Shannon said the Southeast Community is often called under-resourced or marginalized. Still, the parade proves it is a community filled with opportunity and he said the event “provides hope, pride and inspiration.”

This year’s grand marshal is Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Newport News, and co-grand marshal is Newport News City Council member Marcellus Harris III. Shannon said both men have been involved in positive community service initiatives and parade leadership chooses people who “roll up their sleeves and help to serve.”

Shannon first organized the event in 1991 as part of an effort to spread positivity at a time when the news cycle was dominated by reports of middle and high school girls being sexually assaulted. In the ensuing decades, the event has become a day of cultural celebration.

“People often read or hear about some of the negative things that may be going on, but we provide a ray of light, a ray of hope and a ray of sunshine for the community,” Shannon said.

Shannon estimates that the event drew 3,000 participants and 15,000 spectators last year.

Street closures for the event are expected to begin at 9 a.m. and last no longer than 2 p.m., a city spokesperson said. Roads serving as the parade route will open as the parade progresses The following roads will have closures Saturday:

• Chestnut Avenue: 37th Street to 24th Street (Depending on number of parade units – closures could extend to 39th Street)
• 25th Street: Chestnut Avenue to Jefferson Avenue
• Jefferson Avenue: 26th Street to 18th Street
• 19th Street: Jefferson Avenue to Madison Avenue
• Ivy Avenue: 18th Street to 20th Street
• 20th Street: Jefferson Avenue to Madison Avenue

Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com