Carefree Christmas Festival to instill old-time holiday spirit


By Curtis Riggs | November 26, 2008

Santa, snow, more!

CAREFREE – Downtown merchants have a request as people ponder the upcoming holiday season.

“Think snow” is the theme for the Carefree Christmas Festival, which will be held along Easy Street and in the Town Center Dec. 12 through 14. Merchants and festival organizers are asking locals and visitors alike to “think snow” to get into the spirit for the free three-day holiday festival. More...

Swing, Santa, Swing!


Desert Foothills Community Education & Foothills Community Foundation
present “Holiday Swing” to benefit “Artist in Residence” program

CAVE CREEK – If Santa was a dancing man, he’d swing.

Swing starts in your feet. As it works its way up your body, you feel something unusual considering the state of the economy and the apparently gloomy general condition of the world. You feel … toe-tapping, finger snapping happy. That’s how it works with swing music.

Follow Santa’s lead and head over to the Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 12, to catch the high energy, the yuletide spirit, and the fun of a live big band performance at the “Holiday Swing” show featuring The Sonoran Serenade Big Band.
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Big Band Revival

By Meghan Dusanek, Cactus Shadows High School, senior

This article appears in the fall issue of “artZbeat” magazine, published by Desert Foothills Community Education as part of the “Artist in Residence” program.

Growing up, Elvin Monteleone was constantly surrounded by what he believes is the best live music in the world in New Orleans, his birthplace. “In addition to traditional New Orleans jazz and blues, big band music was a significant part of that formative experience and that has always been my favorite genre of music.” Raised in Louisiana, Monteleone played piano and saxophone from early childhood through his high school years. After graduating from Louisiana State University, Monteleone pursued a business career, and he had to put his musical performance interests aside. More...