Blue Angels pilots to mingle at Tunes at Twilight event

The U.S. Navy Blue Angels are set to kick off the first Tunes at Twilight of the season with "an added bonus" meet and greet session along with drink selections from local businesses May 17 at Ivers Square in downtown Cape Girardeau.

The Angels consist of six pilots flying the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet and will be in town for the annual Regional Air Festival 18 and 19 at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport at 860 Limbaugh Drive.

Old Town Cape event coordinator Emily Vines said she views this event as a "special event within the actual event," adding the annual Brews at Tunes is still scheduled for the fall.

"But with the Blue Angels coming, we're anticipating a little bit more foot traffic," she said, "so we just wanted to have something kind of different there for people to enjoy."

Minglewood Brewery, Ebb and Flow Fermentations, Cask Craft Spirits & Beer Lounge and Jackson Street BrewCo will provide beer samples. Baristas Coffee Bar will provide coffee samples.

Vines said sampling will begin at 6 p.m. followed by music performed by newcomer Paul Childers at 7 p.m.

Nashville native Childers, according to his bio on Facebook, finds a way to "blur the lines cast between Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix styles of guitar playing, a Motown rhythm section, and Pop vocal melodies."

The Blue Angels will start mingling and working their way through the crowd around 6:30, she said.

"We don't ever want to distract from the artist that's playing the music," Vines said. "There should be anywhere from at least half an hour to 45 minutes of mingling opportunity with The Blue Angels."

Vines said, "We've never really had anything as big as the U.S. Navy Blue Angels coming to downtown, just for our community concert ... Tunes has never really experienced something quite to this scale."

More information about Blues at Tunes can be found on Facebook.

jhartwig@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3632