Last week, our staff sat down with the folks with Broad Street Productions, a grass-roots organization of volunteers and sponsors who have one of the most popular new ideas for the City of Kingsport in quite some time. We’re beginning a project with them to help sponsor and promote this great downtown event and continue the growth these organizers began a few years ago as they produce a series of concerts and this year, we’ll see 12 national and 12 local artists performing on the streets of Kingsport.
This year, Broad Street Productions is working with Kingsport’s Convention and Visitors Bureau and other sponsors including our group at The GoTriCities Network. Jeff Lane, one of the primary organizers said, “we’re happy to focus on our part of the production with the music and activities and let our sponsors help do what they do best.” Together this new union will gather additional momentum as we all work together to continue to make this event successful.
I first met Jeff several years when he opened Cry Babies in downtown Kingsport. I’m still convinced we met each other way before that too, because he used to work for Paul Bellamy and Hoover Hobbs managing Gators and Ropers on West Stone Drive. I used to call on both of these businesses as an advertising rep for The Kingsport Times-News. Since then, he continues to be one of the most ambitious and headstrong promoters in Kingsport of both entertainment and real estate. His first business with Cry Babies, a restaurant and after-hours entertainment venue was certainly a learning experience for him and he loves Kingsport. That’s evident his passion for this venture as well as his successful real estate agency. Truth is, he’s one of the most ambitious and active developers in downtown and he’s got some great ideas for the future too.
Our staff has just started to develop some exciting new ideas for the Twilight Alive website and we’ll debut that in a few weeks, but what a schedule there will be in downtown Kingsport this year! The first concerts begin on May 31st, but here’s a list of confirmed acts;
Junior Brown
Southern Culture on The Skids
Rob Russell and The Sore Losers
Donna and the Buffalo
Great American Taxi with Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon
Be on the watch for the new website and the complete calendar of concerts coming soon.
Now the Thursday night concerts will be cool indeed, but Friday’s are a real treat too as the popular Bluegrass on Broad series continues downtown too. It’s nostalgic and you can’t help but enjoy our little town’s hometown spirit as hundreds and sometimes thousands gather with their lawn chairs and sit back in the summer air and watch the region’s best bluegrass pickers descend upon the city. There’s a small stage, but the real magic happens on the street corners when players from Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina come to Kingsport to show off their pickin’ among friends and strangers.
So, we’re glad to finally join together with these folks from downtown Kingsport. It’s going to be lots of fun this year. We’re also glad to hear that Jeff is opening up a new restaurant called 12 Bones real soon too. He’s renovating an old building on Main Street and has plans to open in the next several weeks with great brews and world-class barbecue modeled after a restaurant in Asheville of the same name. That will bode well for the guys on my staff because they love to try new restaurants, especially when they’re only a few blocks away and that’s just the beginning. Doug Beatty, Asheville entrepreneur is still working toward completing the renovation work on the old State Theatre, as early plans are to restore the venue to its grandeur in the thirties and support a live stage, eatery and a multi-media center.
Look for updates in the coming weeks and let’s plan on meeting in downtown this summer. We’ll enjoy live music, a cold brew, and great barbecue and if things keep moving in this direction, downtown Kingsport could be the place to be very soon. It’s great going to work there everyday, but we can’t wait to see the place come alive after dark with Twilight Alive.