International Celebration with Food, Music & Entertainment
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Imperial Center

Emperor Blvd., Durham

Transport yourself to a festival to revive all your senses!

The Taste of Durham Festival creates a welcome mat for anyone seeking a quality place that transports you to a good place, great food, live music, and a slice of the good life infused with an international twist. Art and cultural themes and opportunities to celebrate the good life are woven into festival activities. This signature quality-driven festival offers a unique venue to showcase international and cultural entertainment, area restaurant food sampling, art and cultural experiences, venues for artist and musicians, activities for children, and a unique mix of interactive entertainment. The eclectic music lineup features known and emerging artists and a variety of music and international entertainment experiences with a contemporary approach.

Some highlights of main stage entertainment for 2008 include Jose Conde y Ola Fresca, featuring some of the best musicians in New York City, coming together for a fresh take on rootsy, funky, jazzy, Latin dance music; they have had amazing press, from N. Y .Times to NPR. Seth Walker: The driving delivery and infectious down-home style of his voice and songs resonate with Blues and Roots music. Having shared the stage with icons such as Ray Charles, B.B. King and Jimmie Vaughan, Walker has established himself in the music world as a unique and compelling performer. Walker delivers 'a different point of blue' in today's ever-changing world and his eclectic blend of outstanding guitar talent and rootsy, soul filled vocals will thrill any music fan. The Afromotive is a thundering 10-piece ensemble from Asheville, NC, escorting Afrobeat music into the modern age and taking the dance floor with them. They are fueled by a three-piece horn section and an unstoppable rhythm section and musical dance excursions. John Brown Jazz Orchestra: features a professional large jazz ensemble made up of some of North Carolina's top musicians. Specializing in performing traditional compositions from the Great American Songbook and today's cutting-edge arrangements, the orchestra performs a wide range of material covering all eras of jazz. The repertoire includes the music and arrangements of many jazz legends. A 13-15 piece horn section backed by a 3-5 piece rhythm section and complemented by male and female vocalists make this a powerhouse ensemble!

Each year brings a new festival segment to spice up your "good life" experience at the festival. Keep checking the website for updates and entertainment lineup. We will continue in our tradition to bring quality national, regional, and local performers and other international and cultural music genres and performers, ethnic dance demonstrations, and unique interactive celebrations like the New Orleans-style Mardi Gras Parade. The festival also is a welcoming platform to support talented and diverse artists and musicians from all walks of the "world." Extra-special events are in store for the kids. Interactive activities and internationally focused performers, dancers, and entertainers are just some of the many exciting plans.

Each year we designate spaces for a cross-selection of various types and styles of restaurants, caterers, and food-related companies to create an eclectic variety of food sampling. Our invitations are based on quality, variety, reputation, professionalism, creative cuisine, and just plain good food! Savor the gourmet, home-style, and international food samples from area food establishments. Some of the best local chefs, restaurateurs, and creative caterers will showcase their talents with demonstrations and offer a wide assortment of food samples to please any palate.

The Community Chest, Inc. welcomes guests to experience a topnotch destination festival that truly serves the communities. TCC hopes the ambiance and festivities will provide a sense of haven and, possibly, a taste of heaven.

The Taste of Durham Festival is a unique festival format unlike any attraction in the Triangle area. The Festival is produced by The Community Chest, Inc., (501-c-3) a nonprofit organization with passionate commitments to serve community interests and enrichments. Our commitment is to create a festival with distinction and to showcase high-quality entertainment and activities. It is our hope that this type of platform will create bridges toward appreciation, respect, and understanding of diverse cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds, and welcomed people that live within your community and beyond. Just hanging around together in pleasant surroundings can do wonders for human relations. These projects are small steps toward a greater vision. The Community Chest, Inc. welcomes guests to experience a topnotch destination festival that truly serves the communities. TCC hopes the ambiance and festivities will provide a sense of haven and, possibly, a taste of heaven.
Tickets:
General Admission is $4 in advance and $6 at the festival.
Coins for food and beverages and tickets for wine and beer tastings are sold separately.
Advance tickets sold at Triangle-wide Harris Teeters. Time: 11am to 7pm
Photo Gallery Archive

Visit our photo gallery!

Each slide show section will take you on a virtual tour of the 2005 & 2006 festivals.
Savor the side order of sounds with a click of the music sample buttons. Enjoy!

Revive Your Senses: Taste, Touch, Listen, Look, Breath and
Experience the Good Life
©
The Good Life (thê good lif) adj, n, v   1. a relative terminology used by The Community Chest, Inc. to create platforms and experiential gathering places to explore vast and accessible opportunities to enjoy life. 2.These are pathways and bridges toward respecting cultural diversity, gaining awareness of community members beyond geographical boundaries, and becoming a participant to create solutions to enrich lives.

To fully appreciate the ambiance and activities is to experience it for yourself.
Click selections below for details

The Music:

» Main Stage Performances

» Taste of Jazz and Blues

» Performance Showcase Stage

» International Dance Performances

The Food:

» Area Restaurant Food Sampling

» International Wine Tasting Pavilion

» International Beer Tasting Garden

» Triangle Chef Demonstrations

The Festivities:

» Kids Entertainment & Cultural Fun

» Ice Sculpture Carving Contest

» Art is Alive - Artist Exhibit

  AND SO MUCH MORE!

press release
Taste of Durham Tradition Continues to Grow and Serves Up a slice of the Goodlife. The Community Chest, Inc.'s (TCC) production of the fourth annual Taste of Durham (TOD) Festival on May 24, 2008 was another tremendous success thanks to our participants, sponsors, and focus on quality productions, and assistance from various part of the community. Thank you so much for supporting our festival and helping us build our reputation as a destination festival. The festival is the first large-scale project design to serve life-enriching opportunities in various levels for many members of vast communities. Our social values are woven into the festival programming. The attached media coverage will showcase our proof is in the "media pudding". | Read Full Releasae
media coverage
The Eastern Insider: Highlighting Taste of Durham Bon Appetit: What's Happening in your area, New York, NY May Issue 2008 by Kat Odell Highlighted one of four festivals listed in the East Coast area. Visit Durham's Imperial Center for this fourth annual food, wine, and beer tasting. Chow down on fine foods from top local restaurants, then visit the wine pavilion for a selection of domestic and international wines. Check out a performance of more than 30 artists.
Residents rock out at "Taste of Durham" The Chronicle-Duke University, North Carolina May 29th 2008 By Ashley Holmstrom The event was centered around bands representing jazz, Latin, rock, blues, country, folk and Japanese rock musical influences that catered to a range of tastes as wide as those offered by the event's cuisine options. "We are very deliberate in creating something diverse because Durham is so diverse," said Kimberly Ruskan, founder of The Community Chest, Inc., the nonprofit philanthropic organization that organizes the festival each year. "We strive for regional and national notoriety." Festival-goers, many of whom were first-time attendees from the Triangle area, said they enjoyed the wide range of food and entertainment available. The Taste of Durham festival, which gained recognition from Bon Appetit magazine in its May edition, is organized in a way that highlights the arts and cultural experience. She added, however, that she also focused highly on Durham as a community in planning the event."The 'Community chest' is the model we go for when we do the Taste of Durham," Ruskan said. "There's communities within communities.... People pay attention to detail. We want to make you feel like a million bucks."
Taste of Durham: In Celebration of Food The Herald Sun Durham, North Carolina Sunday May 25, 2008 - Metro Front Page By Ray Gronbergt Festival dishes out full-flavor noshing entertainment. Clearing skies and warming temperatures gave thousands of people a chance to enjoy the wares of local restaurants. There was plenty of business too for restaurateurs who were trying to showcase relatively new establishment that are fighting to maintain a foothold in Durham's always-crowded market for foodies. "The festival is getting bigger and bigger every year," Finazzo said as patrons continued to stream in form the parking lot. "And people are really enjoying it."
Taste of Success: Treats, Tunes and Snow The Herald Sun Durham, North Carolina Friday May 23, 2008 Front Page By SUSAN BROILI Lots of flavors in cuisine as well as music will be dished out at the fourth annual Taste of Durham Festival. Each year brings new sensory experiences for the ear and taste buds. Don't expect corn dogs. "We want to give people a taste of the high life". The same goes for the beer and wine at the International Wine Tasting Pavilion and Beer Tasting Garden. High quality entertainment fare will also be on tap. The diverse culinary and entertainment fare reflects the festival's mission that in turn, takes its cue from Durham.
John Brown Bull City Jazzman's New Thing at Taste of Durham Cover Story in Triangle Live | The Herald Sun Sunday, May 23, 2008 By DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN At the Taste of Durham, folks will be able to hear those 15 horns lead the 20-piece band in which Brown plays double bass. This performance marks the band's festival debut. "I like to support any kind of arts event that's happening-especially in Durham," Brown said. "It's very important to me to share music with our community." He started the band to get top musicians together from across the state in order to play and share the music they love, he said.
Rock Picks: Highlighting Entertainment at Taste of Durham The News & Observer: What's Up Raleigh, North Carolina May 23th 2008 By David Menconi Rising young bluesman Seth Walker, Walker is one of the country's best rising bluesmen is a fine platter of swinging soul-blues with Walker's croon animating characters including the desperate Hurricane Katrina victim in "2 Left to the Ceiling." Yell for that one Saturday.
Organizer wants Taste of Durham to gain southern appeal with move The News & Observer, Saturday May 19, 2007 - "Exponentially better and bigger" - according to founder Kim Ruskan - the third Taste of Durham Festival happens next Saturday, with bands, food samples, arts and crafts, ice sculpting and a Mardi Gras parade. | Read Full Story
TASTE OF SUCCESS - Growing popularity moves annual Durham festival to a new location The Herald Sun, Friday May 25, 2007 - The taste of success means a new geographical flavor for the annual Taste of Durham Festival. For its first two years, the festival centered around Brightleaf Square downtown. This year, it's moving to a larger location. "We grew out of it the very first year," Kimberly M. Ruskan said of the Brightleaf area. Ruskan founded a nonprofit, The Community Chest Inc., specifically to put on the cultural event that features wine, beer and food tastings as well as music and dance performances. | Read Full Story
Taste of Durham's flavors, sounds please all palettes The Herald Sun, Sunday May 27, 2007 - A mass of people from all walks of life turned out Saturday for the relocated annual Taste of Durham Festival. Unlike past versions at Brightleaf Square in the city center, this year's festivities were held in the parking lot of an upscale office complex off Interstate 40 near Raleigh-Durham International Airport. | Read Full Story
Taste of Durham Delicious at New Site The News & Observer, Sunday May 27, 2007 - The Taste of Durham scenery changed from brick tobacco warehouses to brick office buildings Saturday after the festival moved from downtown to a corporate office park near the Wake County line. But few seemed to notice between bites. | Read Fulll Story
good news
"Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground. Let their spirit ignite a fire within you to leave this world better than when you found it." - Wilferd Peterson

Positive and uplifting information, highlight charities and good works, etc.


Creative Collaborations to Enrich Community
Mark your calendar for Taste of Durham Festival in a new location!

Celebrating the good life can do good things for Durham, The Community Chest (TCC) believes. The nonprofit organization produces the Taste of Durham Festival, a quality-driven festival offering a unique venue to showcase international and cultural entertainment, area restaurant food sampling, art and cultural experiences, venues for artists and musicians, activities for children, and a unique mix of interactive entertainment. | Read Full Story

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TROSA
(Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers, Inc.)

Founded in 1994, TROSA is a nonprofit organization in Durham that provides a comprehensive two-year residential program for individuals recovering from substance abuse. In addition to learning to live free of their addictions, TROSA gives residents the opportunity to advance their education, gain vocational skills, improve their interpersonal skills, and learn how to re-enter the larger community. | Read Full Story

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Inviting Sponsors and Community Partners for 2008

Major Sponsors

Emerald Sponsors
Sapphire Sponsors
Magazine Sponsors
Grants

• The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation

Business Sponsors

• BOOM! Magazine

• TROSA

Special Thanks

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