When musician Shannon Walls wanted to do something to honor the memory of his recently deceased son, Avery, putting together a music festival was the obvious choice.

“Music has always been a really big part of our family’s lives,” he says. “Our weekends a lot of times consisted of just listening to the radio and dancing and singing, so music is always on in our household. The fact that we’re doing a music festival in honor of Avery is fitting.”

Avery was diagnosed at birth with Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, a congenital heart defect which causes the heart to beat very rapidly and not pump enough oxygen throughout the body. At the age of 3, he had a successful ablation surgery to correct his defect and lived a normal, healthy, happy life for the next 17 years.

But in 2023, two months before his 21st birthday, Avery Walls experienced a heart attack and passed away.

Faced with this traumatic loss, Walls and his family tried to find meaning in their suddenly changed world. Performing with his band Side Piece, “Central Virginia’s favorite party band,” helped him channel his grief. But still he wanted to do something more.

“I was venting to my bandmates that I wanted to do something in Avery’s name to try to help people and make something good come from this awful thing,” Walls explains. “We knew we wanted to do a music festival, but we didn’t know anything about putting one on. Our drummer Blake Narron is well connected with the local music community and started making some phone calls. My band made it their mission to make this festival a reality.”

The Avery Walls Music Festival was also created to help raise money for the American Heart Association. Last year’s inaugural event took place at The Park RVA and brought in an unanticipated crowd, raising more than $31,000, the largest third-party fundraiser for the organization in Central Virginia in 2024.

“It was incredibly humbling to have so many people there who wanted to help keep Avery’s memory alive,” Walls says. “We had such a great response and had bands hitting us up afterwards asking to play the next year, so we decided we should keep this event going.”

This year’s festival promises to be bigger with nine bands performing and will also include raffle prizes and a VIP karaoke lounge. Walls’ group Side Piece will be performing along with other Richmond rock bands the Jangling Reinharts, Acoustic Underground, Audio Vault, the School of Rock Short Pump, Hold My Beer, The Usual Suspects, Monkey Fist, and Bombshell, plus a number of surprises throughout the day.

“I have been very lucky to have some really great people help us with this,” Walls says. “All of these bands are doing this for free. And not only are they doing it for free, but they’re also giving up a prime gig day. They’re all so generous with their time and their efforts.”

Michelle Nostheide, executive director of the American Heart Association Central Virginia, says the organization is extremely grateful for the support of the Walls family and everyone involved with the festival in its mission of fighting heart disease.

“Funds raised through the Avery Walls Music Festival are supporting our life-saving work in Central Virginia, including growing blood pressure, nutrition and CPR awareness and resources in Powhatan County where the Walls family resides. Every dollar raised makes this work possible.”

Walls has already seen results from the festival in his own community with Avery’s local youth football league receiving funds for first responder training for coaches and automated external defibrillators. He’s also seen results in his personal life.

“Don [Busick] with the podcast Small Venue Music was instrumental with the promotion of the festival,” he explains. “When he heard our story last year, he immediately jumped in and started helping. He became very educated on the warning signs of heart disease and started getting his own heart health checked out. He attributes his work with the festival to saving his life.”

The festival plans to continue growing and become an ongoing event as a way to keep Avery’s memory alive. But Walls admits that working on the festival is difficult as he continues to mourn his son.

“It’s been a year and a half since his death, and it’s still very hard. It’s hard every day. And when I do stuff with this festival, I have to relive that moment every time to tell Avery’s story,” he explains. “But I will gladly go through the pain of retelling it as many times as it takes to get the word out to make this event successful. If we can spare one person the grief and suffering that we’ve gone through, it’s worth it.”

The Avery Walls Music Festival will be held at The Park RVA on Saturday, April 26 from noon to midnight. Free to attend. Donations are encouraged.