RVAMAG
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Local culture since 2005 • RVA • Richmond, Virginia #rvamag @rvamag Find our stories here: https://linktr.ee/Rvamag
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.
RVA Live Music | Automatic, Switchfoot, Unseemlier, Christopher Janos
Richmond’s music calendar is stacked this week with Automatic and Accessory at The Camel, Unseemlier, Bashful and Heavy Friends at Banditos, and Switchfoot and Anberlin at The National. Plus, we check...
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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.
A First Look at the New Brown's Island
Richmond's Brown's Island is undergoing a $30 million renovation that will add permanent restrooms, drinking water, more shade and seating, a splash pad, improved accessibility and new landscaping. Th...
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Richmond has always had the bands and the audience. What it didn’t always have were enough places for that music to grow. Ahead of Iron Blossom, we talked with veteran promoter Ken Macdonald about the city’s changing live music ecosystem, from tiny clubs to festivals and the Allianz Amphitheater.
Iron Blossom is Part of a Bigger Richmond Music Story
Ahead of Iron Blossom, veteran promoter Ken Macdonald looks at how Richmond’s live music ecosystem has grown from small clubs and theaters to Brown’s Island, major festivals and the Allianz Amphitheat...
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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.
Richmond Loves Dolly Parton
Richmond remembers Dolly Parton through the people who loved her, from drag performers and lifelong fans to children discovering her music. Callie Watts explores Dolly’s legacy through Richmond’s Doll...
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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?
You Can Kiss Off! 45 Years of Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes singer Gordon Gano talks 45 years of making music, the staying power of “Kiss Off” and “Blister in the Sun,” doing karaoke to his own song, playing without setlists and returning to Ric...
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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.
Night Idea Has Been Here the Whole Time.
After 16 years, Richmond’s Night Idea is still evolving. Joey Anderson, Reggie Pace and Reyna Pannell talk about the band’s changing sound, Richmond’s musical ecosystem, why musicians seem to love Nig...
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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.
RVA Live Music | The Bouncing Souls, Human Worm, Nana Grizo, Fonville x Fribush
Ska isn’t dead in Richmond this week. The Bouncing Souls, The Suicide Machines and Strike Anywhere hit The National, while Nana Grizol plays Gallery5 and The Auricular celebrates eight years at The Ca...
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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.
Read the Virginia Pride 2026 Pride Guide 🏳️🌈
Download the official 2026 Virginia PrideFest Guide from RVA Magazine, featuring the full schedule, festival map, parking info and stories from Richmond’s LGBTQ+ community.
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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.
Mary File Clem and the Richmond Legacy of Fan Free Clinic 🏳️🌈
At 22, Mary File Clem helped create Richmond’s Fan Free Clinic, Virginia’s first free clinic and the organization now known as Health Brigade. Patience Salgado reflects on Clem’s legacy, the mutual ai...
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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.
Philip Crosby on Queer Theater, Pride and Not Backing Down 🏳️🌈
Richmond Triangle Players executive director Philip Crosby talks queer theater, the AIDS era, political pressure, Pride and why RTP remains committed to telling LGBTQ+ stories.
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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.
Meet New Diversity Richmond Chief Executive Director Tiera Craig 🏳️🌈
Meet Tiera Craig, Diversity Richmond’s new executive director, as she discusses listening to Richmond’s LGBTQ+ community, the challenges facing local nonprofits, and her vision for the organization’s ...
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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.
RVA Cannabis Co. Is Building a Different Kind of Bar in Richmond 🏳️🌈
RVA Cannabis Co. is bringing THC-infused mocktails, edibles and a new kind of cannabis-focused social space to downtown Richmond’s Canal Walk.
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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.
Monsieur Zohore’s Art Is Funny, Until You Think About It 🏳️🌈
Richmond-based artist Monsieur Zohore turns paper towels, wigs, performance and comedy into work designed to charm, disarm and unsettle. Callie Watts talks with Zohore about Puppassions, race, his Ivo...
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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.
Virginia Film Chief Andy Edmunds Made a Movie
After decades helping bring major productions to Virginia, Virginia Film Office director Andy Edmunds has made a movie of his own. He talks with filmmaker Christian Detres about writing and directing ...
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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
TVJerry on Richmond Movies, Midnight Shows and Lost Media 🏳️🌈
For more than 50 years, Jerry Williams, aka TVJerry, has watched Richmond’s film and media world evolve. He talks with RVA Magazine about reviewing movies on Channel 6, Tales from the Grips, midnight ...
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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.
RVA Live Music | Dogo Du Togo, Box Factory, Condition Critical, Sprawl
This week’s Richmond music picks include Dogo Du Togo, Box Factory, Cherry Moon, Luna Light, Condition Critical, Circle Breaker and Excrementia, plus Sprawl’s new album Jumpline Bleeder. From Togolese...
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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.
A Quick Guide For This Labor Day Weekend in Richmond
Richmond has plans for your Labor Day weekend. From underground music and Radical RVA Pride to First Fridays, local art, festivals, hardcore shows and late-night drive-in movies, here are 10 things wo...
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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.
For These Artists, PrideFest Is More Than Performance 🏳️🌈
Virginia PrideFest returns to Richmond Sept. 12 with music, community and celebration. Writer Sapphira Mohammed talks with Nat Ramos, What’s Our Age Again, Teshia LeSane and Ari Voxx about representat...
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Commonwealth Sound Exchange is a celebration of experimental music taking place this weekend. This new festival honors the long tradition of Richmond’s noise community. It’s artist-founded and led, and pulls in national and regional acts similar to Europe’s Unsound Festival.
Richmond Has a Noise Scene. Commonwealth Sound Exchange Wants You to Hear It
Commonwealth Sound Exchange brings 39 experimental and noise acts to Richmond for a three-day festival at Studio Two Three, celebrating RVA’s deep roots in the global experimental music scene and offe...
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I was finally able to get the production team leadership on the line, in addition to Butcher Brown’s Corey Fonville, who is also featured in the film, to discuss the story behind Cosmic Echo.
Meet The Richmond Filmmakers Behind Cosmic Echo
Richmond filmmakers and musicians come together for Cosmic Echoes, a documentary celebrating jazz legend Lonnie Liston Smith. The team behind the film talks collaboration, Richmond’s creative communit...
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This past Saturday RVA Wrestling returned to CarMax Park to bring a little something extra to a night out with the Richmond Flying Squirrels.
Photo | Ringside at RVA Wrestling’s Return to CarMax Park
RVA Wrestling returned to CarMax Park Saturday night, bringing high-flying action, rivalries and plenty of smack talk to Richmond Flying Squirrels fans. Photographer Vinny Candela was ringside to capt...
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We’re talking Destructo Disk, we’re talking Gaffer, we’re talking Belly of the Heart, nothing but the best. Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? Hit us up at griffin@rvamag.com.
RVA Live Music | Destructo Disk, Wilt, Babe Lewis, Belly of the Heart
Richmond’s music calendar stays busy with Destructo Disk, FRIEND, Gaffer, Wilt, Rikki Rakki, Babe Lewis, Latchkey, Ranfeld and Saint Frances hitting local stages. Plus, Belly of the Heart returns with...
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The brilliance of the piece doesn’t lie in its bald-faced take on the peculiar institution. If there is a badge of dishonor this country wears above all others, it is this one. We all know that. Its power lies in a deeper dissection of the beast.
Review | 'Confederates' Doesn’t Let Anyone Off Easy
Christian Detres reviews Dominique Morrisseau’s Confederates at Firehouse Theatre, a sharp, confrontational examination of American racism, allyship, colorism, white feminism and the struggle to contr...
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Taking him in is like contemplating a tesseract. Like trying to sum up a four-dimensional object with measuring tape. He didn’t just create masterworks on wax, he created auratic movements in jazz. He is an innovator whom innovators invoke as inspiration.
Infinite Expansions: A Conversation with Lonnie Liston Smith
Richmond jazz legend Lonnie Liston Smith reflects on a remarkable career spanning Miles Davis, Pharoah Sanders, Expansions and Guru’s Jazzmatazz. Now the pioneering musician is opening up about his li...
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He tells me his goal is to be the outdoor destination for mid-level touring punk and metal bands, DIY, locally grown festivals of any genre, and is already serving the EDM diaspora as a perfectly natural rave culture venue. Note to Promoters: Call Arturo.
What the Hell is VITCO? We Went to Find Out.
Virginia Transit Company, better known as VITCO, is transforming a long-empty Richmond lot into an outdoor music venue, bar and restaurant. With punk, metal, EDM and DIY festivals in its sights, plus ...
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So when news hit that a confrontation between a driver and the cyclists ended with the driver allegedly being strangled, sides were quickly taken. But there was another side of the story that hadn't been heard. rvamag.com/community/wh...
What Happened Before the Video?
Broad Street Bullies founder Salad disputes the initial account of a confrontation between cyclists and a driver near VCU, offering the group's perspective on what happened before the fight and why Ri...
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In the immediate aftermath of the June 2022 Dobbs decision, Richmond’s reproductive health organizations received a groundswell of donations and volunteer support. But more recently, those same organizations are struggling to provide basic services to folks seeking care.
Four Years After Dobbs, Richmond’s Abortion Funds Are Running Short
Richmond abortion funds and providers are facing rising demand as donations and financial support decline. Four years after the fall of Roe v. Wade, Virginia has become an important destination for ab...
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PALMYRA WITH JOSEPH TERRELL, NABEEL, SHAGWUF AUGUST 20-22ND AT THE CAMEL Virginia natives Palmyra are gearing up for three nights at The Camel this week. The group has spent their post-Covid years solidifying themselves as one of the strongest indie folk groups on this side of the country.
RVA Live Music | palmyra, Joey Cash, Jo Passed
Richmond’s live music calendar with three nights of Palmyra at The Camel, Joey Cash bringing hazy electronic sounds to Richmond Music Hall, and Canadian indie artist Jo Passed closing out a tour at Ga...
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