JAMESTOWN, NY – The Great American Picnic is back for another year at Southern Tier Brewing Company!

WRFA’s annual summer fundraiser is taking place Tuesday, June 21 from 5 to 9 p.m. at STBC’s Empty Pint in Lakewood, NY and will once again feature live music, food, and tasty STBC beverages!

BUY TICKETS

The theme for this year’s fundraiser is “hAll Fired Up!” – celebrating the artists in the Rock and Roll Hall of fame!
Musical acts include:

• Juda H. Priest (Chris Lee & Friends)
• Backlog
• Cold Lazarus
• Cindy Love & Her All Star Band
• Porcelain Bus Drivers
• Gary Peters Jr.
• Matthew Larson

To support WRFA, please consider purchasing a $20 ticket, which includes two complimentary STBC beers. Anyone with a ticket will also receive one complimentary ticket for the WRFA Gift Basket Giveaway (additional tickets can be purchased for $1 each).

The Gift Basket will include items from a variety of local businesses!

Hot Dogs will also be sold and there will also be a 50/50 raffle!!
(Attendees under 21 get in for free).

Call the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts box office for Tickets – (716) 484-7070 – or buy them on line at www.RegLenna.com.
All to benefit WRFA!!

JAMESTOWN – Reg Lenna Center for the Arts and WRFA radio presents a special holiday program in December.

Home for the Holidays 3: Christmas with The Reg premiered on Saturday, Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. with the full video now available for viewing on the WRFA youtube channel.

Hosted by the Reg Lenna’s Len Barry, the program was produced inside the Reg Multimedia Studio and features musical performances by Gary Peters Jr., The Porcelain Bus Drivers, Bill Ward with Adam McKillip, Cold Lazarus, and Sue Tillotson & Jim Cunningham with Michael Hart.

Enjoy a mix of standards, pop, rock, folk and Celtic songs of the season at your home!

Donations to support the program and Reg Lenna/WRFA Radio are appreciated.

Home for the holidays 3: Christmas with the Reg is made possible through the support of Summit Wealth Management, The Office of Dr. Vejendla, and UPMC Chautauqua.

• RELATED: ARTS ON FIRE PREVIEW INTERVIEW WITH PAULA POUNDSTONE

A block party is free and open to the public between 5 and 7:30 p.m. Beer, wine, soda, water and concessions will be on sale throughout the event. Siri Thai, 3C’s Catering and Southern Tier Brewing Company will be vending. Live music will be performed on an outdoor stage by members of Porcelain Bus Drivers. Free tours of the newly renovated facilities will be given at 5, 5:30, 6 and 6:30 p.m. Patrons are asked to meet under the Reg Lenna awning for tours. The block party will be held on 3rd Street between Pine and Spring Streets.

At 8 p.m., renowned stand-up comedian Paula Poundstone brings her humor and wit to the Reg Lenna Theater stage for a night of laughs.The frequent panelist of NPR’s Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me last performed at The Reg in 2012 as part of the Lucille Ball Comedy Festival and is a National Comedy Center Advisory Board Member. Tickets for the performance start at $25. An Evening with Paula Poundstone is sponsored by Comfort Inn of Jamestown.

The renovation of Reg Lenna Center for The Arts included complete overhauls of seven spaces including lobby-concessions-box office, 3rd on 3rd Gallery, Bill’s Place – home of the 1878 Buffalo Bill Billboard, WRFA offices and studios, administrative offices, a Pre-Function space and library and a Media Arts Studio.

$1.5 million in funds were secured through Governor Cuomo’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative for the project. Local support included $1.5 million from Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation, $900,000 from the Gebbie Foundation; and $850,000 from the Lenna Foundation. The final funding gap of $216,469 was awarded by Chautauqua Region Community Foundation last May in its largest single grant in its history.

Since the renovations have been completed, The Reg has seen an increase in rentals throughout the facility including private parties, meetings of non-profit organizations and business groups and more. All available spaces, including the Reg Lenna Theater were rented last May for Conduit Ministries’ (Re)Treat 2019: In This Together weekend of events.

Paula Poundstone

The Media Arts Studio is now the home of several live series of events which are free and open to the public. These include Bill Ward’s Back Room Radio Hour and WRFA’s Community Matters LIVE! (featuring a Jamestown Mayoral Candidate debate October 17 and a Meet The Candidates event with city council candidates  on October 24) and Arts On Fire LIVE! (An Evening with Edgar Allen Poe featuring storyteller Paul Leone is scheduled for October 25.)

Additionally, several Downtown Revitalization Initiative funded events have been presented on The Reg Theater stage this year including The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra performing the music of Queen, a concert from national touring band Guster and Emmanuel Baptist Church’s 100th Anniversary concert celebration featuring The Walls Group.

For information on rentals, reservations and ticketing for all events, please visit reglenna.com or call 716.484.7070. Reg Lenna Center for The Arts is located at 116 E. 3rd St. in Jamestown.

The 2018 Great American Picnic takes place Tuesday, June 26 at Southern Tier Brewing Co. Here’s an image from the 2015 event.  (Photo courtesy of Andy Palermo)

LAKEWOOD – An annual fundraising event for the only locally owned, non-religious radio station in Chautauqua County will be taking place Tuesday night, June 26 in Lakewood.

WRFA and the Southern Tier Brewing Co. are teaming up to present the seventh annual Great American Picnic – an evening of friends, food and live music from a variety of local and regional performers. This year’s theme is “I Love the 80s!”

The Great American Picnic will begin at 5 p.m. at the home of the Southern Tier Brewing Co. (2072 Stoneman Circle, Lakewood, NY) and will feature a wide variety of musical acts.

Musical entertainment for this year includes The Porcelain Bus Drivers, We Speak Canadian, Bill Ward, Feverhawk, Steve Davis & Friends, Cheers for Beers (Gary Peters, Jay Peterson, Dan Witherspoon, Steve Davis and more!), and Rebecca McIlvain.

Many of the performances will also be recorded and broadcast on WRFA.

All the music that will be played during the four-hour event will be songs from the 1980s.

Tickets to this exclusive event are $20 each and include two complimentary beers from Southern Tier. In addition, the WRFA Advisory Board will also be on hand selling hotdogs, raffle tickets, and letting attendees get their photo taken with a vintage 80s convertible.

The event continues until 9 p.m.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown Noon Rotary Club is announcing its Fire and Ice Ball fundraiser is set for 6 p.m. Saturday, April 14 at Chautauqua Suites in Mayville.

The event is being described as an eclectic evening of dining, music, dancing, a silent auction and extraordinary “Fire” and “Ice” drawings for items such as a week-long stay at a resort in Mexico and an authentic Ice Blue diamond.

Attendees will be treated to dinner food stations, with music Porcelain Bus Drivers. Reduced-priced rooms at Chautauqua Suites are available.

Tickets for the Ball are available for the price of $60 each from any Jamestown Noon Rotarian or by calling 489-7308.

Hosted by WRFA General Manager and founding member of 10,000 Maniacs, Dennis Drew, the concert will feature familiar holiday and seasonal songs across music genres.

Maple Grove Voices, one of several acts performing at the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts as part of Home for the Holidays: Christmas at the Reg on Saturday, Dec. 17

Performing will be high school choirs The Maple Grove Voices and Westfield High School Westwinds, Celtic music from Sue Tillotson & Jim Cunningham, rhythm and blues from Steve Davis & Marla Harris, classic barbershop vocals from The Jamestown Harmony Express, bluegrass from Matt Gronquist, Bumpy Peterson & Ken Hardley, rock from The Porcelain Bus Drivers and a special performance from Broadway’s Ron Orbach (Chicago, The Producers.) The jolly old elf, himself – Santa Claus – will also make an appearance.

Christmas at The Reg is sponsored by Comfort Inn of Jamestown, Key Bank, DFT Communications and WRFA.

The holiday concert sees The Reg close out a calendar year that included over 50 movies, 7 Reg Presents live events and several community partnerships including BANFF Mountain Film Festival, Chautauqua Regional Youth Ballet’s Nutcracker, Lucille Ball Comedy Festival, Sprout Film Festival, Jamestown Concert Association and more.

Early in 2017, the organization will begin major renovations which include a complete lobby makeover, new offices and studios for WRFA 107.9 FM, the relocation of 3rd on 3rd Gallery to street level and new offices for staff.

Home for the Holidays: Christmas at The Reg tickets start at $5 for children and $10 for adults. Limited “Pay What You Can” seats will be available – first come, first served – the night of the performance at the box office.

The Reg box office is open 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturday. The box office phone number is 716.484.7070 and is located at 116 E. 3rd Street in Jamestown, NY. Tickets may also be purchased online at reglenna.com.

The summer concert series will take place on Friday’s from 7-9pm between Lafayette Street next the JSB Arena and the patio behind the Arena. The Big City Concerts are free to the public while food & beverage vendors will be on-site.

The series will consist of nine dates starting with Brent & Co. on June 14 and finishing with Mosaic Foundation on August 23. Other acts include the Porcelain Bus Drivers (June 21), Jackson Rohm (June 28), 3 Dead Frets (July 12), Smackdab (July 19), the Bogarts (July 26), Cindy Haight (Aug 2) and Derek Davis & the Tasty Groove (Aug 9).

For more information and the latest with local entertainment updates, stay plugged into jamestownarena.com and the JSBA facebook & twitter pages. Representatives can also be reached at the Arena Box Office at (716) 484-2624.