May 30, 2001 – The Acura Music Festival returns this summer with legendary musicians Paul Simon and Brian Wilson at the helm. Paul Simon took the stage this spring for Acura at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (Acura contributes to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation). Now, through the Acura Music Festival, the automaker will make a sizeable contribution to the Children's Health Fund, a charity of special interest to headliner, Paul Simon. The Children's Health Fund provides much-needed medical services to homeless and underprivileged children in Simon's hometown, New York City, and in 16 satellite locations around the country.

The Acura Music Festival hits the road June 9 in Seattle, complete with New Orleans-style festivities and food. In addition to the performances by Simon and Wilson, each concert will feature a second-line marching band and traditional southern cuisine prepared by authentic Louisiana Chefs John Ed Laborde and Ernest Jones. The chefs will travel with the festival, bringing their famous delicacies to music lovers everywhere, including crawfish bread, etoufee, red beans and rice, Louisiana fried chicken, Cajun jambalaya, boudin and barbeque shrimp.

Dates for the 2001 festival follow:

Date	City	Venue
June 9	Seattle, WA	Gorge Amphitheater
June 19	San Diego, CA	Coors Amphitheater
June 20	Phoenix, AZ	Desert Sky Pavilion
June 26	Kansas City, KS	Sandstone Amphitheater
June 30	Chicago, IL	Tweeter Center
July 13	Boston, MA	Tweeter Center
July 18	Philadelphia, PA	Tweeter @ Waterfront
July 20	Holmdel, NJ	PNC Bank Arts Center
July 24	Wantaugh, NY	Jones Beach

Last year, John Fogerty and Aaron Neville drew crowds at Acura's first summer celebration of food and music.