Schedule
Saturday, September 27, 2025
3:00-5:00pm
Location
Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront
3001 Atlantic Avenue
Virginia Beach, VA 23451
Peacock Ballroom
Second Floor
Tickets
Tickets will go on sale July 2025
$35 – Adult
$25 – Children under 16
Tickets include a light hors d’oeuvres, access to the event, Q&A Session and Autograph Opportunities
Sponsors
Let’s celebrate our hometown heroes.
The Neptune Festival invites you to celebrate excellence and honor our Hometown Heroes during Boardwalk Weekend at a reception by the sea.
Many of those who have chosen to live in our community have also chosen to make their professions in ways that provide valuable and critically needed services to all of us. They do this every day – quietly, efficiently and effectively. The Neptune Festival has established a program to recognize these organizations each year through representatives chosen by their organization’s leaders.
They are the defenders of our community and our country, our soldiers and police officers, sailors and firefighters, marines, airmen, emergency medical service volunteers and coast guardsmen, and they are those who teach our children. What they do for us all is epic in the truest sense – they are our hometown heroes.
2025 Keynote Speaker
Tony Brothers
Referee, National Basketball Association
Tony Brothers has officiated 1,690 regular-season games in 29 seasons as an NBA staff official. He has also refereed 187 playoff games, including 16 NBA Finals games. Brothers’ assignments have also included the 1999 McDonald’s Championship in Italy and the 2008 China Games.
Brothers considers his most memorable NBA assignment to be his first NBA Finals: Game 2 of the 2012 Finals between the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Before joining the NBA, Brothers spent four years officiating in the Continental Basketball Association, including three Finals and an All-Star Game. Brothers also has seven years of high school officiating experience in his home state of Virginia and one year of service at the junior college level.
To honor his late mother, Dorothy Brothers, a former Bank of America executive, Brothers and his wife co-founded the Still Hope Foundation, which seeks to assist single mothers in building a strong, successful family unit by offering quality resources and supportive relationships.
Brothers attended Old Dominion University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management Information Systems.
2025 Hometown Heroes
We’re taking this opportunity to celebrate some of our own hometown heroes. Thank you for all that you do!
Lalisha Fitchett,
Brandon Middle School
Virginia Beach City Public Schools
Dylan Koch
Virginia Beach Dept Of Emergency Medical Services
Master Firefighter Christopher Daugherty
Virginia Beach Fire Department
Sergeant Randall Bryant
Virginia Beach Police Department
Lieutenant Demetrius Taylor
Virginia Beach Sheriff's Office
AC1 Samuel A. Welch, USN
United States Navy
SSgt Jessica H. Backes, USMC
United States Marine Corps
LTJG Lyman Dickinson, USCG
United States Coast Guard
SGT Caitlyn Gurgel, USA
United States Army
Other Neptune Events
We’ve got events happening from May to October, and we hope that you can join us for all of them!
