FULLERTON, Calif., Sept. 28, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Orange County's eighth annual ragtime music festival (www.ragfest.com) is coming to Fullerton, California, October 20-21, 2007.
A celebration of the music that enthralled America from the 1890s through the early 1920s, the event, known as "RagFest," is the only annual ragtime music festival in Southern California (and most of the southwestern U.S.). It has been expanded this year to include seven venues throughout the downtown Fullerton area, with several special programs and a raft of piano solos and two-piano duets, songs, instrumental ragtime and even a full ragtime orchestra.
RagFest 2007 will feature a weekend of ragtime entertainment starring Ian & Regina Whitcomb, Tex Wyndham, Patrick Aranda, Sonny Leyland, Shirley Case, Brad Kay, Erika C. Miller, Bob Pinsker, Bill Mitchell and Andrew Barrett, as well as many more featured and guest artists.
"RagFest really does bring 'a million dollars worth of talent' to Fullerton," according to Eric Marchese, the event's founder and coordinator. Marchese noted that RagFest's sponsor, Friends of Jazz, donates proceeds from the festival to provide jazz education, school programs and scholarships.
Marchese said this year's highlights include the third festival appearance of the San Diego-based Heliotrope Ragtime Orchestra, the eighth consecutive RagFest appearance by the Albany Nightboat Ragtimers, and the festival debuts of pianists Mark Allen Jones, "Perfessor" Bill Edwards, Galen Wilkes and Orange County vocalist Debbi Ebert.
Located at 138 W. Commonwealth Ave., Steamers Jazz Club is festival headquarters and the main venue. During both afternoons, continuous entertainment runs concurrently at Steamers, Mo's Fullerton Music store, the Imperial Ballroom, the Fullerton Public Library, Rutabegorz Restaurant and the Fullerton Museum Center.
The Wyndham Anaheim Park Hotel, 202 West Houston Ave., Fullerton 92832, will host a festival reception October 19 from 6:30 to 11 p.m. that's free of charge to the public. The hotel will also host an October 20 after-hours with musicians from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. and a festival wind-down October 21 from 6 to 11 p.m.
One of the weekend's highlights is an all-star, revue-style variety show which unfolds at 8 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Osborne Auditorium of the Fullerton Library, 353 W. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton 92832.
Among the other specialty programs are several seminars and a 90-minute "Youth Forum" featuring a roster of Southern California youngsters performing ragtime music on piano. This concert will unfold at the Osborne Auditorium at 3 p.m. Sunday, October 21.
Advance ticket prices are $60 per person for an all-weekend pass, $25 per person for Saturday or Sunday afternoon and $20 per person for Saturday night. At-the-door prices are $5 higher per ticket. Tickets can be purchased by credit card at the festival website, ragfest.com, via PayPal. For tickets and more information, call (714) 680-6684.
All tickets will be Will Call at Steamers on October 20 and 21 and, if purchasing only the Saturday night show, at the entrance to the library.