Celebrate First Night Virginia 2025
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Presents

Festival of the Arts in Downtown Charlottesville New Year's Eve

First Night Virginia is an annual “community celebration of the arts” that began in Charlottesville in 1982 and is the second oldest First Night in the country. 2023 will be the 41st annual festival of the arts with many family-friendly activities on and around the historic Downtown Mall.

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Jesse Joyner
4:00, 6:30 and 9:00 pm
Omni Hotel Ballroom Large
Jesse Joyner Juggling Show

Jesse Joyner, an entertainer from Richmond, VA, learned how to juggle in middle school. His friends later put him up to performing in the school talent show and by then he had figured out how to juggle machetes as well as balance a six-foot ladder on his face. That was the beginning of a journey that has taken Jesse around the world with his delightful all-ages show full of stunts, tricks, and humor. Jesse relies heavily on lots of audience volunteers for his tricks, so come ready to participate, laugh, and celebrate the new year in vaudevillian style! Jesse Joyner is one of the few people in the world who have completed a marathon while juggling.
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Mosaic Handbell Ensemble
5:15 and 7:45 pm
Omni Hotel Ballroom Large
Mosaic Handbell Ensemble

Share a delightful evening of holiday music with Mosaic Handbell Ensemble, Shenandoah Valley’s favorite ringing group.  This personable group of 6 ringers offers a wide variety of pieces from small vignettes to fully-orchestrated works - using 3 octaves of hand bells and 5 octaves of handchimes (100 instruments in all!!)  If you haven’t seen this group perform, you haven’t seen what the world of handbells has been up to lately!!
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Kat Somers Music
4:00 and 5:15 pm
the Front Porch
Kat Somers Music

Kat Somers is a performing artist and singer/songwriter with compositions from indie soft pop and acoustic pop. Kat started playing on the streets when she was 15 years old. She would play for 5 hours straight and take any opportunity she had away from school, marching band and soccer practice to be sharing her music with anyone who would listen. After graduating from college Kat began pursuing her music career full time booking over 35 gigs in under a year, many of them in the summer, and continuing to play on the streets.
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