Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/52934
Monster Trucks Bring Chills and Thrills to the Crown by AMANDA JENKINS Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines and take off to Fayetteville's 7th Annual AMP Tour's Thunder Slam Monster Truck and Motorcycle Demolition Derby at the Crown Coliseum on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 27 and 28. There will be a pit party at 6 p.m. and the show follows at 7:30 p.m. This year's show features everything from high-fl ying freestyle BMX bikers, motorcycle destruction, monster truck rides and local Tuff Truck competitions. Since 2005, The AMP Tour, based out of Scottsdale, Ariz., has put on hundreds of shows in cities all over the United States. This 2012 tour means visiting 17 different cities in a matter of 13 weeks. "We are going to El Paso and San Angelo, Texas and then Fayetteville is our third stop on this tour," says AMP Tour Manager Ron Leach. The AMP Tour is known for bringing 10,000 pound, 10-foot-tall, monster trucks with 2,000 horse power to a variety of different venues to captivate and thrill their audiences. "This year's show is all new — never before seen in Fayetteville," says Leach. Some of the most prestigious performers will also be returning to the decked out in protective gear and going head to head in a full contact battle with one another. The show includes a team of six of the best freestyle BMX bikers fl ying through the air and performing gut wrenching and nail biting stunts that are sure to fascinate you. These professional ramp-to-ramp jumpers from Pinn-It FMX will bring the stunts of the X Games seen on TV to the Crown Coliseum. The show has a team of freestyle BMX bikers fl ying through the air and performing heart-stopping tricks. Also, if you're feeling gutsy, compete in Thunder Slam's Tuff Truck Challenge. The Amp Tour's Thunder Slam Monster Trucke and Motorcycle Demoli- tion Derby will bring chills and thrills to the Crown. Crown Coliseum; like Viper, Reptoid, Nail It, Country Boy and God, Guts and Glory. Watch these "masters of destruction" and more rev up their engines and crush cars with their oversized tires. Thunder Slam also features the Road Rage Rampage Motorcycle Demolition Derby, which consists of six dare-devil motorcyclists getting "This is where local competitors have the chance to come to the show in their work trucks and they can jump jumps and crash cars," says Leach. "It's a great time." "We're just going to be high and tight and have fun, there will be all new thrills and chills, a lot of excitement," exclaims Leach. "There will be a lot of things happening that have never been seen in Fayetteville before." Tickets to The AMP Tour's Thunder Slam Monster Truck and Motorcycle Demolition Derby are available for purchase online or at the Crown Coliseum Box Offi ce and other local Ticketmaster locations. Reserved tickets are under $20 and 30 percent off when bought in advance. FSO to Perform Exceptional Children and Adults' Concert by KAREN POPPELE Part of the mission of the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra (FSO) is to try and serve every citizen of Fayetteville and Cumberland County. The FSO will once again do so in a very special way when the orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Fouad Fakhouri, presents Peter and the Wolf at the Second Annual Exceptional Children and Adults' Concert on Friday, Jan. 27, at 7:30 p.m. at the Crown Theater in Fayetteville. Free and open to the public, the concert event welcomes all children and adults to attend, providing an opportunity for those with mental, physical and developmental disabilities to enjoy a live performance of the symphony. The concert program features Michael Macias on piano, Ken Smith as narrator and Betty-Neill Parsons, conductor of One Voice, the Gilmore Center's Exceptional Performing Chorus. "This is the second year that we've done this program. It was a great success last year," said Fakhouri, FSO music director and conductor. "There's obviously a need for something like this because many of these exceptional young children, and adults as well, are underserved in that regard, and we felt that we should fulfi ll that need. We have associated with the concert the instrument petting zoo. The kids get to grab these instruments, touch them and play them and then they get to hear them when we perform." The FSO was able to acquire and purchase the instruments for the zoo through a grant from the Cumberland Community Education Foundation. "These kids can always play with them, and when we go to schools, we can even take them with us. It's a great, great thing. The idea behind it is that after the concert, as they are walking out, the instruments are there as well, and they can gravitate towards the instrument that they liked in that performance. It provides them with hands-on experience with these instruments, beyond just sitting there in the audience and listening and being preached to. It gives them an actual chance to physically touch the instruments, and that's real WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM The Instrument Petting Zoo is a big draw for children at the FSO Exceptional Children and Adults' Concert. important," he noted. Also important, Fakhouri noted, is the effect the music itself may have on many in the audience who, prior to this type of concert, may have never had an opportunity to see an orchestra or sit in an audience and listen to one. "Last year, when we fi rst started, there were many noises in the audience, a lot of activity. As everything settled in, and as we started getting into the third or fourth piece, it almost had this calming effect, and you could sense that it shifted from 'they're just watching' to 'now they're listening to us' because a lot of the noise completely dissipated and subsided to a point where we felt we could acknowledge that we had their attention. "The concerts in general are a joy for the musicians to perform and certainly for me because part of what we do as musicians always is try to touch people's lives in ways that we feel certainly are important to us as musicians. By the time you leave that concert, you feel that you have signifi cantly affected positively the lives of children and adults," Fakhouri continued, underscoring the importance of the FSO's commitment to its mission as it celebrates its 55th anniversary season: To Educate. To Entertain. To Inspire. "We want to encourage everyone to come to our concerts. We are constantly trying to seek programs, any events that will touch people. We are always striving for that, and to provide culture and music to all of Fayetteville and Cumberland County." For more information on the Exceptional Children and Adults' Concert or the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, please call 910.433.4690, email info@fayettevillesymphony. org or visit www. fayettevillesymphony.org. KAREN POPPELE, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Stephanie@ upandcomingweekly.com JANUARY 18-24, 2012 UCW 7 AMANDA JENKINS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Stephanie@ upandcomingweekly.com