Celebrate Fairfax Ticket Giveaway

Did you realize that it is now June? That means Celebrate Fairfax!, Northern Virginia’s largest community-wide celebration, is set to take place THIS WEEKEND (June 6-8, 2014) at the Fairfax County Government Center. The 33rd annual festival features 25 acres of amazing concerts, family programs, green living, thrilling carnival rides and nightly fireworks on Friday and Saturday! Among the festival's highlights are the more than 120 concerts and performances on eight stages, with an exceptional line-up of national, regional and local artists including headliners: The All American Rejects, Cheap Trick and The Hunts. There are also more than 300 exhibitors, food vendors, crafters and interactive activities such as ExxonMobil Children’s Avenue, a petting zoo, the Fairfax County Karaoke Championship, great festival foods, Greenology, the Fairfax is Beautiful Photo Contest, the Craft Beer Garden & Silent Disco, and the DockDogs Championship (a personal favorite from last year's event).



You can find out more about Celebrate Fairfax on the festival website, and today, I'm excited to give away two adult general admission tickets to this year's event. To enter, please answer what you most want to see at this year's festival in the comments section below. One comment/entry per person. Please enter by 10:00 PM Eastern time Tuesday, June 3rd, and I will use Random.org to choose a winner. Please also make sure there is a way for me to reach you if you win. (You may also send me an e-mail at seanramblings at yahoo[dot]com with your e-mail address if you don't want to include it in the comments section. For example, my e-mail address is seansblogis@awesome.com, and I entered comment #5.) Good luck!

Plus, you can purchase discounted tickets at the Celebrate Fairfax website or at Northern Virginia Wegmans stores.

Update: Congratulations to drinkyourmilkshake for being the winner of the Celebrate Fairfax tickets! I will be in touch with the ticket information.

2014 Celebrate Fairfax Headliners

Although there's plenty of snow on the ground, summer will be here in no time. While many people consider Memorial Day weekend as the unofficial start of summer, since I moved to Northern Virginia, my summer truly begins with Celebrate Fairfax. Northern Virginia's largest festival released its headlines for 2014, and I'm happy to share the line-up here.

Friday, June 6: The All-American Rejects (8:00 PM)

Saturday, June 7: Cheap Trick (8:00 PM)

Sunday, June 8: The Hunts (4:30 PM)

I recently heard an All-American Rejects song on the radio and thought that they would be a great fit for Celebrate Fairfax. Apparently, the festival staff read my mind! The band had a string of hits in the mid-2000s, but they are young enough that new songs could still be relevant today. Here are my favorite All-American Rejects songs:





I saw Cheap Trick open for Poison and Def Leppard about five years ago and was surprised that they were an opening act. When I wrote that The All-American Rejects had a string of hits, Cheap Trick has some MONSTER hits. Plus, the band was referenced in a couple episodes of The Simpsons back when folks actually watched The Simpsons. (There's a line where Homer says that "I'd rather listen to Cheap Trick," but I couldn't find the video online.)

Finally, I know nothing about The Hunts except that their ketchup is inferior to Heinz. Maybe that's because they focus on music rather than ketchup. At least according to the YouTube comments, this song is used in a Milk Bone commercial.



Super Early Bird tickets for Celebrate Fairfax go on sale on April 1 (the early bird period is April 1-10), with adult tickets for only $7 (vs. $15 at the gate). Please let me know where you can see The All-American Rejects or Cheap Trick for only $7. The Combo Tickets (including rides) are only $25 for adults and $22 for kids during the Super Early Bird as well.

For tickets or more information about the festival, check out the Celebrate Fairfax website.

Notes From The Def Leppard-Poison-Cheap Trick Concert

I saw the Def Leppard/Poison/Cheap Trick show out at Nissan Pavilion over two weeks ago, but I’m only getting around to writing about it now. Sorry. Since I’m already late and the tour may be over, I’ll go with a notes format. Enjoy.

- After attending the Neil Diamond concert last August and the Fleetwood Mac show in March, it’s nice to see "younger" performers live. At this pace, I’ll see a Jonas Brothers performance in 2013. (That’s a joke; you don’t have to leave just because I typed Jonas Brothers).

- Throughout the concert, all three bands yelled "Hello Bristow," "How You Feeling, Bristow" or some other variation of this. Nissan Pavillion is in fact located in Bristow, Virginia so they were accurate in their location. However, Bristow is an unincorporated town with a population under 16,000 according to Wikipedia. Wouldn't it have better to say "Hello Virginia" or "What's up DC?" I'd be surprised if there were 500 Bristow residents in attendance (and not working) at the concert.

- Before their performance, an audio montage of Cheap Trick pop culture references played. No video, just audio. Odd start, but I always like a good Simpsons quote or two.

- The crowd was louder when Welcome to the Jungle played over the sound system prior to Poison arriving on stage than at any point during or after Cheap Trick’s set. Maybe people were still outside tailgating during Cheap Trick.

- Through the back of the T-shirt of someone sitting near us, I learned that Iowa State University Intramurals include an NCAA Bowl Pick’em; NCAA Basketball Pick’em; 8-ball and 9-ball pool; and Curling. How exactly is NCAA bowl and basketball pick'em an intramural sport? It seems more like gambling.

- Unfortunately, there was no sign of Taya, Amber, Jess or any other Rock of Love girl in Bristow. Big John did come out on stage though for a brief cameo.

- Bret Michaels must have said C.C. in reference to guitarist C.C. DeVille at least twice per song. We get that there will be a guitar solo in every song, and we know C.C. will be the guy performing said solo. You don't need to tell us. Do you need to tell C.C.?

- The most random part of the show was a woman in front of us wearing feathers in her hair. It was random that Sacagawea attended the concert, but that wasn't the weird part. For Posion's Every Rose Has Its Thorn, she took a plastic parrot on a string from her purse and tried to attach the parrot to her shoulder. Apparently, the fake parrot wanted no part of this and continuously fell to the side no matter how hard the woman tried to attach him/her.

- In a shocking development, Def Leppard performed Pour Some Sugar On Me; Poison played Nothin But A Good Time; and Cheap Trick performed I Want You To Want Me.

- What I found interesting is that Cheap Trick referenced Poision and Def Leppard and Poison mentioned Cheap Trick and Def Leppard. Def Leppard never said anything about Poison and Cheap Trick.


My conclusion: Everyone Rocked! Good show, good time and each band played all of their big hits.