BY TONI GUAGENTI
VIRGINIA BEACH — Move over King Charles III. Virginia Beach has a new king.
William “Bill” Lascara, a shareholder and attorney with Pender & Coward, became the 49th king of the Virginia Beach Neptune Festival during a coronation recently at the Oceanfront.
Surrounded by his royal court of “tritons” and “princesses,” Lascara began a reign that lasts through the Neptune Festival Boardwalk Weekend from Friday, Sept. 29, to Sunday, Oct. 1.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to participate in a great organization and meet new people,” Lascara said during a telephone interview with The Independent News.
He added that it’s also a way to give back to the community.
“That makes it all worthwhile.”
The Neptune Festival, brainchild of a handful of Virginia Beach business owners, kicked off in 1974. Over the years it has grown to include 40-plus events over the course of six months. Those events include beer and wine tastings, a golf tournament, a seniors gala and Symphony by the Sea.
The festival adds more than $23 million to the city’s economy and brings over 400,000 visitors to the Oceanfront for the final, big weekend, which includes an 8K, a grand parade and the International Sand Sculpting Championship.
As for Lascara, he and wife Laura Lascara are not new to the festival. Bill Lascara served as a triton in 2012, celebration chairman in 2017, and both he and his wife served as volunteers in various roles for more than a decade.
“We kept it a secret for a long time,” Lascara laughed about being named King Neptune several months ago. “It took some discipline to keep things secret.”
Photos from the coronation on Saturday, March 25, show Lascara fresh-faced. A beard was in progress when a photographer for The Independent News visited him on Wednesday, March 29.
He chose to wait until after the fête to grow the ceremonial beard King Neptunes are supposed to don to cut down on speculation, he said. Lascara hasn’t had a beard since law school in the 1980s.
What does his wife think so far?
“Pretty gruff,” Lascara relayed.
Kit Chope, Neptune Festival president and chief executive officer, said no other couple more deserves the title this year than Bill and Laura Lascara for all they have contributed over the past decade.
King Neptune and his court are the face of the festival, Chope said.
“They are the city’s ambassadors,” Chope added.
Lascara has spent most of his adult life in Virginia Beach. His father rose to vice admiral in the U.S. Navy. The family moved frequently. Lascara attended 10 schools in 12 years, but graduated from Norfolk Academy in 1976.
After high school, he attended the University of Virginia, where he double-majored in history and government studies, a path that led him to the former Marshall Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary.
Lascara graduated from law school in 1983, and he returned to Hampton Roads, where he served as in-house counsel for Jonathan Corp., a now-defunct shipyard.
From there he worked for Wilcox & Savage for 11 years and owned a law firm for three. His firm merged with Pender & Coward, where he practices today in contracts, construction, general business litigation and sometimes non-litigation work. He also takes on pro bono work from time to time.
“It is incumbent upon all of us to help out those who are less fortunate,” he said.
Lascara met his wife while “throwing pizzas and waiting tables” at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront during what he calls, “the fateful summer of 1980.” They married in 1986. They have four adult children and four grandchildren.
Lascara hopes for good weather this year. Outdoor events in 2022 were canceled with Hurricane Ian’s approach. Before that, the pandemic wreaked havoc on the festival.
Said this year’s king, “I’m looking forward to having a lot of fun.”
Visit neptunefestival.com online to learn more about this year’s festival and other events produced by the nonprofit organization behind it.
© 2023 Pungo Publishing Co., LLC
Long live the king!