Jacksonville Beach, Florida; 05, August 2016: North Florida's only 3-day independent music festival#JaxSummerFest2016 returns this year to unofficially close out the summer during the weekend of August 12-14.

This year’s Summer Fest brings together some of Florida’s hottest indie promoters, brands, and artists to perform at exclusive fashion shows and brand/artist showcases, but what makes the event special is that each day also features community service and awareness events orchestrated by Vision Is Power Foundation and The Chasity Taylor Foundation— two not-for-profit organizations that have teamed up to collect school supplies for underserved local K-12 students in addition to Goodwill clothing donationsand food/bottled water donations for those in need at #UnityRally16, an event on the final day of the festival. In-person attendance for the showcases is expected to be in the hundreds, and over 14,000 will be watching on TV via CW17/Bounce-Jacksonville (Comcast 225/Digital 17-2; Life & Grind TV series, Music 4 U TV series - Sundays 8-9pm)

Jax Summer Fest 2016 will kick off on Friday August 12 at Level 7 Event Center on University Blvd where Jacksonville-based fashion designer Angelica Scurry will host “Fashion Unbarred”, a unique event that will showcase two of her clothing lines along with some of north Florida’s most talented visual artists as well as an eclectic, multi-genre collection of some of the city’s homegrown musical talent, including alternative rock/hip hop band askmeificare, pop/gospel singer William Lavant, neo-soul singer Antoniyo Greenwood, local reality cable TV stars BOAT (rapper) and JermekaMonae (R&B singer), and guitarist/singer JaimzMallett amongst others. This show will start at 9pm and tickets are available via the Summer Fest event page on Facebook as well as through each individual performer/artist, who collect 50% of advance ticket revenues. Day 1 of Summer Fest also includes a “Back 2 School” Supply Drive and a Goodwill Clothing Drop from 4pm-9pm before the fashion show/showcase, where the public can stop by and drop off any decent-condition clothes and/or basic school supplies for those in need.

Summer Fest Saturday (August 13) kicks off with a Back 2 School Giveaway at Mt. Olive Primitive Baptist Church where the supplies collected the day before will be distributed on a first come, first serve basis. This event will be hosted by Alisha Tonya with Scene 904, a local production company that specializes in entertainment media and arts. Subsequent events include the Jacksonville Caribbean Festival at A. Philip Randolph Park, a full-day, Caribbean Carnival-style celebration of island life and culture where “Life & Grind: Duval”, Jacksonville’s first and only cable reality TV series (produced by Jacksonville-based indie artist/producer DezNado for CW17/BounceJax; Comcast 225, Digital 17-2 - Sundays at 8pm) will be filming, and Duval Up Next artist showcase later that night at Eagles Bar & Café where Music 4 U (Also on CW17/BounceJax, Sundays at 8:30pm) will be filming.

Sunday morning on the final day of Jax Summer Fest 2016 calls families and friends to fellowship at Open Arms Christian Fellowship’s 10 a.m. service in north Jacksonville, which precedes an informal public forum with community members and leaders at Hemming Plaza to be held from 3-6pm. The rally, called “Unity Rally ‘16”, is intended to gather some of the movers and shakers in the greater Jacksonville community to brainstorm ideas on improving government-community relations. The organizers are also seeking donations of basic snacks, sandwiches, bottled water, and toiletries to give to the less fortunate. Tickets are available at www.facebook.com/LifeGrindDuval. 50% of the ticket proceeds go directly to the artists performing the two showcases on Day 1 and Day 2 of Summer Fest. For Info, contact Jay Scott at vipsquad[at]gmail[dot]com or facebook.com/LifeGrindDuval

FACEBOOK Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/287485121609453/287485148276117