Norah Jones and Emmylou Harris, who have 23 Grammy Awards between them, will headline a new Virginia Arts Festival event in Williamsburg this year.
The festival announced Williamsburg Live! as the replacement for Funhouse Fest, which was discontinued this year by Bruce Hornsby, who had curated it for the past three years. Like its predecessor, Williamsburg Live! will be held on the Lawn of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg in late June.
Jones will perform June 21, and Harris will headline June 22, with an opening set by the Americana duo Mandolin Orange.
Tickets will go on sale Friday at 757-282-2822, vafest.org and the Virginia Arts Festival box office at 410 Bank St., Norfolk.
Lawn tickets will cost $45 for one night or $80 for both. Tickets under the big tent will range from $60-$100 for one day, or $114-$190 for both. Gold VIP packages are $125 per night or $237 for both nights.
Rob Cross, executive director of the Virginia Arts Festival, said he was ecstatic at the caliber of headliners for the inaugural event.
“I got my first two picks,” he said. “We couldn’t be happier with these two artists, and I think we’re really lucky to be able to bring in Mandolin Orange as well.”
Harris, whose career as a singer-songwriter has spanned four decades, has won 14 Grammy Awards and many country music honors.
Jones has sold more than 50 million albums, starting with “Come Away With Me” (2002), which has been recognized as a landmark in pop music.
According to a news release from the Virginia Arts Festival, an opening act for Jones’ show will be announced soon.
Funhouse Festival, which Hornsby had curated for the arts festival since 2016, started out as a three-day event and was shortened last year to two. It featured a wide range of performers, as well as a smaller side stage, with a Hornsby performance featured each night.
The Virginia Arts Festival announced earlier this year that Hornsby had chosen to put the event “on hiatus” for this year. Cross said work began last fall on a new event that would keep some elements in place — such as the setting, and the wide variety of food and craft beer trucks, as well as other vendors — while creating a distinctly new event.
“We didn’t want to just duplicate what Bruce’s vision was,” Cross said. “We’re going back to a single stage, with just a headliner each night plus an opening artist. The bottom line is, it will still be two great nights of music with major artists. We’ve built an audience there, and now we want to build on what we’ve done before.”
