LISTEN Trumpet player Tony "The Big Cat Smith" will be performing at the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival and handling The Nomad's musical programming during the festival. Photos by Butch Comegys
Showtime After a lengthy pandemic break, The Nomad is back and ready for the Jazz Festival spotlight By JulieAnne Cross
T
he Nomad Bar, a downtown staple occupying the 900 block of Orange Street since 2011, recently reopened. It had been 24 months since they were first shuttered, along with all non-essential businesses, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Dave Vandever, who owns the bar with his wife, Linda, says social distancing restrictions meant it was impossible for a venue the size of The Nomad Bar to reopen much sooner. “When people started to feel safe again, we opened,” he says. They’ve never had a website or a sign. And it hasn’t hurt business. “Basically, we have the iconic neon ‘open’ sign and that’s what everyone responds to,” says Vandever. “We don’t over-advertise.”
Since March 11, the bar has been open for music and drinks on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. “The response to our reopening has been wonderful,” he says. “Old customers. Old friends and musicians. New customers. They all really responded to us reopening. It’s very gratifying.” The Clifford Brown Jazz Festival has tapped the bar as an afterparty venue, with late-night jams taking place Thursday through Saturday, from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. (It could even be a pre-concert stop: the bar opens at 4 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 6 p.m. Saturday.) Tony “Big Cat” Smith, a renowned Wilmington trumpeter who is gracing the main stage of the festival on Saturday, will be handling the musical programming for the bar during the festival. ► JUNE 2022 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM 45
