By Christopher Manson Celebrating its 35th year this month, the Cultural Arts Alliance (CAA) of Walton County’s ArtsQuest Fine Arts Festival is one of the organization’s signature – and biggest – events. In recent years, the CAA has expanded this into Art Month, with visual, performing, and literary arts programming in diverse formats at various venues throughout Walton County. Additional Art Month events and programs include Under the Sea, a fundraiser for the CAA’s Underwater Museum of Art; the Longleaf Writers Conference, formerly the Seaside Writers Conference, a gathering of creative writers from across the nation, featuring award-winning scribes from the worlds of poetry, fiction and screenwriting offering workshops and seminars; Digital Graffiti at Alys Beach, a unique “projection art” festival employing digital technologies; “Sinfonia Goes Pop!,” a free concert at the Alys Beach Amphitheatre; performances by the Emerald Coast Theatre Company; and, of course, gallery events. Find the complete Art Month schedule at culturalartsalliance.com. CAA Events Director Allie Anderson says patrons can expect new twists for May 13 and 14’s ArtsQuest festival at Grand Boulevard Town Center. “Things are different with the layout,” she says. “We’re expecting around 5,000 people over the weekend.” This year’s festival includes adult art classes with the likes of Justin Gaffrey, non-stop live entertainment, and new sponsors. “The other events are happening almost every day throughout May,” says Ms. Anderson. “We support and promote them all and want people to go to as many as they can.” Ms. Anderson handles all of the... Read More

  From Stages to Schools By Will Estell If you’ve experienced The Velcro Pygmies live, then they need no introduction. They’ve performed for years locally at Tailfins, Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation’s Concerts in the Village, Club L.A. and recently at Seaside School’s Taste of the Race. If you’re a fan of 80s and 90s rock, and moreover, the showmanship that goes along with it, you’re probably going to become a Pygmies fan around the third or fourth song of your first show. The world-famous Velcro Pygmies specialize in taking their fans on a journey to a place and space in time when hair was big, pants were tight, screaming was singing, and in the illustrious words of KISS’s Gene Simmons, “If it’s too loud. You’re too old” rang true. The Pygmies formed in Louisville, Ky., in the 90s, playing night clubs, college campuses and frat parties, primarily across the Southeast. The band – whose four members consist of founder and frontman, Cameron Flener, guitarist, Chase West, bassist, Max War, and drummer, Chris Eddins — reside across two states, but tour together for three to five shows each week. They’ve managed to not only maintain a strong fan base, especially here in Destin, but also to drastically build upon it over the decades. Whether you go to a Velcro Pygmies show here in Destin, Auburn or Tuscaloosa, Ala., Atlanta, Houston or Cleveland, you will see a crowd made up of 35 to 50 somethings who became fans in their own college... Read More