Holly Springs Plans First Beach Music Day 9/19/2007

October is great time to head to the coast. And if you're in Holly Springs on Sunday, Oct. 7, you'll feel like you're at the beach already.

Holly Springs Cultural Center and BassLake Area Shag Society will co-host Holly Springs' first Beach Music Day on Oct. 7. Festivities will include “shag” dancing, a matinee showing of the movie “Shag”, a classic car show, and an evening concert with the Craig Woolard Band.

Beach Music Day is to be an annual event in Holly Springs.

“North Carolina has a rich tradition of beach music and shag dancing that we think will be a hit with area residents,” said Bob Klaus, Cultural Center manager. “This event is a new partnership with the popular BassLake Area Shag Society and promises to be one of the best festivals of its kind in the Triangle."

Festivities start at noon and be capped off with the Craig Woolard Band concert, which starts at 6:30 p.m.

Admission to Beach Music Day is free. Admission to the concert is $10. For tickets and more information, visit www.hollyspringsnc.us or call (919) 567-4000.

If you're relatively new to the Carolinas, the event is an opportunity to learn about this regional genre called beach music and the dance with which it is associated. Shag is a type of swing dance. Most trace its roots to the 1940s when rhythm and blues bands played South Carolina beaches and clubs in what is now North Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach.

Highlights of Beach Music Day include:

•  Matinee of “Shag,” the 1989 movie about four girlfriends on a weekend trip to Myrtle Beach in the summer of 1963

•  Vintage Car Show

•  Swing and shag “dance-off”

•  Shag demonstration by Shag Champions

•  Free shag-related line dance class

•  Beach music concert at 6:30 p.m. with the Craig Woolard Band

Craig Woolard spent 27 years with The Embers as one of North Carolina 's official ambassadors of beach music. He is a Carolina Beach Music Awards Entertainer and Male Vocalist of the Year.

Woolard's hit “Love Don't Come No Stronger” has been on the beach music charts for 2 ½ years, longer than any other song. It's become the theme song for a new generation of beach music lovers and even transcends the genre.

Holly Springs Cultural Center, a Town-operated facility connected to a Wake County branch library, opened in December 2006. It is at 300 W. Ballentine St., a block from Holly Springs Town Hall . The cultural center offers concerts, theater, movies, classes and other special events.

For directions, a schedule and other information, go online to www.hollyspringsnc.us.

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Town of Holly Springs - PO Box 8 - 128 South Main Street - Holly Springs, NC 27540 - (919) 552-6221 - Holly.Springs@hollyspringsnc.us