Schedule
Saturday, September 27th
Time TBA
Location
Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront
3001 Atlantic Avenue
Virginia Beach, VA 23451
Peacock Ballroom
Second Floor
Tickets
$35 – Adult
$25 – Children under 16
Tickets include a continental breakfast, 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 at Neptune’s Final Toast in honor of our Hometown Heroes. Local heroes will be honored 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.
2024 Keynote Speaker
Randolph “Komrade” Bresnik
NASA Astronaut, and U.S. Marine Corps Colonel, Ret.
Randy “Komrade” Bresnik was selected as an astronaut in 2004. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in May 1989. During his military career, he became an F/A-18 Test Pilot and was eventually deployed to Kuwait to fly combat missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. A veteran of STS-129, he has also trained as a Cave-a-naut with the European Space Agency to test living deep beneath the Earth’s surface as well as an Aquanaut for NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operation (NEEMO) 19.
From 2012 through 2015, Bresnik served as the Lead Astronaut for NASA’s partnership with the SpaceX Company in the design and development of their crewed Dragon Capsule as well as a Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) in the Mission Control Center.
Bresnik most recently served as the Commander of the International Space Station for Expedition 53 and flight engineer for Expedition 52. Currently, he serves as the Assistant-to-the-Chief of the Astronaut Office for Exploration managing the development and testing of everything that will operate beyond low earth orbit on Artemis missions.
2024 Hometown Heroes
We’re taking this opportunity to celebrate some of our own hometown heroes. Thank you for all that you do!
Paula Hernandez,
W.T. Cooke Elementary School
Virginia Beach City Public Schools
Michael McCracken
Virginia Beach Dept Of Emergency Medical Services
Captain Scott Springer
Virginia Beach Fire Department
Sergeant Christopher Washington
Virginia Beach Police Department
Sergeant Gerald Wells
Virginia Beach Sheriff's Office
AM1 Aaron J. Pacheco, USN
United States Navy
Gunnery Sergeant Eric N. Gonzales, USMC
United States Marine Corps
BMC William T. Campbell, USCG
United States Coast Guard
Sergeant Gregory Hardy, 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!
