5 Points Music Foundation Presents
Dinner in the Dark 2026
A Culinary Journey Through Melting Pot & Indigenous Traditions. June 24, 2026 at 5 Points Music Sanctuary.
The Experience
Join us for Dinner in the Dark.
Guests will be blindfolded to simulate the experience of dining without sight, fostering a deeper appreciation for the challenges faced by the blind and low-vision community.
In the comforting embrace of darkness, visual distractions fall away. Your senses of taste, smell, touch, and sound become the guide through a memorable meal designed to inspire empathy, conversation, and connection.
Dinner in the Dark is more than a dinner. It is an invitation to slow down, trust your senses, share stories, and experience the world from a different perspective.
Tickets
Reserve Your Seat
Tickets and table reservations for Dinner in the Dark 2026 are available through Givebutter. The event takes place June 24, 2026 at 5 Points Music Sanctuary.
Auction
Support From Near or Far
Our Dinner in the Dark auction supports the mission of 5 Points Music Foundation. Browse unique local treasures, experiences, and opportunities to give back.
Dinner Theme
Melting Pot & Indigenous Traditions.
This year’s theme explores the stories, cultures, and communities that have shaped America through food. For one evening, guests dine blindfolded — slowing down, engaging their senses differently, and encountering familiar and unfamiliar ingredients without the visual context we usually rely on. It is an experience that often leaves people surprised, challenged, and more connected to the table around them.
As America approaches its 250th anniversary, this year’s menu honors Indigenous cultures whose foodways stretch back thousands of years before the nation’s founding. This region’s food history did not start with European settlement, and this menu does not either. The 2026 courses are built around ingredients and techniques that predate the colony — sunchokes, pawpaw, wild turkey, hominy, foraged hickory nut — woven together with the Appalachian traditions and diverse culinary influences that continue to shape this place.
Working alongside the team at Pumpernickel Pickle Catering Co., four courses were crafted from locally sourced and foraged ingredients, each paired with stories rooted in history and place. Experienced in the dark, without the visual shorthand we use to categorize food, those stories come through differently — in texture, aroma, the char on a kernel of corn, the bitterness of a native green.
Why It Matters
Supporting accessibility through shared experience.
Dinner in the Dark supports 5 Points Music Foundation’s work to create more accessible, inclusive, and welcoming experiences through music, community programming, and sensory-aware event practices.
Your participation helps advance a culture where live music and community gatherings are built with access, dignity, and belonging in mind.
Featured Guest
Travis Jenkins
Roanoke native, broadcaster, sound engineer, and longtime advocate for the blind and visually impaired community.
Travis Jenkins is a Salem, Virginia resident and Roanoke native who has built a dynamic career rooted in resilience, leadership, and community impact. Legally blind due to Stargardt’s disease since just before his 11th birthday, he has never allowed vision loss to define his limits.
A graduate of Radford University with a degree in Business Management, Travis spent seven years in radio as both an on-air personality and promotions professional for several stations, including WJJS and WYYD. He later became a familiar voice in the region as the Public Address announcer for the Salem Red Sox, and announced a Major League game at Fenway Park for the Boston Red Sox on Disability Awareness Night in 2012.
Deeply committed to community service, he has served 14 years on the Board of Directors for Roanoke Festival in the Park, including six years as President, and has contributed to several nonprofit organizations such as Slam Duncan’s Children’s Charity, Kids Soar, and the Kids Heart Show, where he currently serves as a board member. He is also a member of the Rotary Club of the Blue Ridge and a co-organizer of Rock Haven, the club’s signature one-day music event benefiting Brain Injury Solutions.
An entrepreneur, Travis has owned and operated both a DJ service and a luxury transportation company. Today he remains active in the local music scene as a sound engineer and continues to support community efforts through service, music, and advocacy.
Join Us
Reserve your place at the table.
June 24, 2026 at 5 Points Music Sanctuary. Seats are limited.
With Gratitude
Thank You to Our Sponsors
Dinner in the Dark is made possible through the generosity of community partners who believe in accessibility, inclusion, and the mission of 5 Points Music Foundation.
