NORFOLK, VA – The Norfolk NATO Festival Flag Raising Ceremony kicked off the 2025 Annual Norfolk NATO Festival on April 24th. NATO Allied Command Transformation leadership and staff celebrated alongside NATO Joint Force Command Norfolk, and the local community.
The Flag Raising Ceremony, led by NATO Allied Command Transformation, was the initial public event that started the Norfolk NATO Festival in downtown Norfolk, featuring Admiral Pierre Vandier, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation and Mayor Kenneth Alexander. The Flag Raising ceremony is a formal military tradition that serves to reflect on the history, people and cultures that bound the Alliance together and serve as a foundation of the longest lasting and strongest Alliance in history. The ceremony was followed by NATO Night at the Virginia International Tattoo.
On April 26th, a Parade of Nations marched through downtown Norfolk. The parade featured floats and staff members from NATO’s 32 nations, high school bands and cheers squads, civic leaders and groups, first responders and U.S. military representation from across Hampton Roads. The parade was followed by an International Village in Town Point Park where area residents visited and learned about NATO, visited the tents of NATO nations, enjoyed cultural dress and food.
Norfolk, Virginia is NATO’s Home in North America and the Alliance has three separate entities located in the city:
- Headquarters, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation is NATO’s Strategic Warfare Development Command that anticipates future security needs, designs military capabilities and educates Allied forces to ensure NATO maintains its warfighting edge. The Command leads NATO’s military transformation and develops concepts, creates innovative processes and capabilities, and prepares training and exercises for new missions and roles that are now further challenged by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Joint Force Command Norfolk defends NATO’s Allies in the North Atlantic and High North, from seabed to space.
- NATO Centre of Excellence: Combined Joint Operations from the Sea is a pre-eminent source of innovative military advice on combined joint operations from the sea.