From new and expanding festivals to restaurant and bar openings and closings, 2014 was a busy one in the local entertainment world.
Local clubs and theaters received highly anticipated updates, and a few moved to larger digs, but the news wasn't all positive. Some of the year's most noteworthy bullet points were the result of events that were non-starters.
Here are some of the top happenings of 2014 in the local entertainment scene:
In the Nov. 24 issue of Country Weekly magazine, readers voted Rossville, Ga.-born songstress and "American Idol" runner-up Lauren Alaina as the seventh most beautiful woman in country music. The 20-year-old singer was featured alongside artists such as Carrie Underwood, Terri Clark, Miranda Lambert and Shania Twain.
Luther Masingill poses for a WDEF photograph in his job as a staff announcer for the radio station shortly after he returned to Chattanooga from military service in World War II. As a fledgling radio announcer, Masingill read incoming news accounts to Chattanoogans of the Dec. 7, 1941, attacks on Pearl Harbor.The man simply known as Luther passed away at 92 in October. He began his broadcast career on New Year's Eve in 1940 and held the same job at WDEF radio until the day he died.
The inaugural Fly Free Fest at Cherokee Farms in Ringgold, Ga., unfortunately was hit with heavy rains throughout the entire weekend. The lineup included Railroad Earth, Dan Deacon, The Motet and Desert Dwellers. Organizers Corey Petry says he plans to do another festival, but isn't sure when. However, he is planning to book the bands he liked from Fly Fest in town and is involved in bringing Seven Handle Circus to Rhythm & Brews on Jan. 9.
Screenshot of the Barrel Drop website.After some downtown businesses suggested the New Year's Eve party planned by Chattanooga Whiskey would siphon off their holiday traffic and negatively impact sales, organizers pulled the plug, despite a surge of interest that prompted them to move the event to a larger venue. Had it gone through as planned, the party would have featured live music, food trucks and, naturally, drinks aplenty.
Beers from Big River Grille & Brewing Co. will be included in the inaugural Chattanooga Craft Beer Festival on Saturday at First Tennessee Pavilion. Other local breweries participating are Chattanooga Brewing Co., Moccasin Bend Brewing Co. and McHale's Brewhouse & Pub.The Southern Brewers Festival, a two-decades-old fundraiser featuring craft beers from around the country and live music from big-name acts, expanded to from one night to a two-night affair. Headlining this year were moe. and Gov't Mule.
A skater prepares to touch the ice whilst skating around the rink at Ice on the Landing in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Thursday, December 11, 2014.For the first time in more than a decade, Chattanoogans could go ice skating in town. Ice on the Landing, a temporary rink at the 21st Century Waterfront, opened the day after Thanksgiving and will likely stay into early February.
Since it began in 1982, the annual Riverbend Festival has essentially had one act appear nightly on the Coca-Cola Stage. Officials announced in 2014 that this year it will have a second act performing at 6:30 p.m. on the Coke Stage. As always, there will also be a headliner on the stage at 9:30 p.m.
The Big Chill and GrillBoth the Camp House and Big Chill and Grill relocated this year. On Williams Street since opening in June 2010, the Camp House, a multi-purpose venue, reopened in a much larger space in the Chubb Life Building on M.L. King Boulevard. It is a coffee shop, restaurant and performance space. The Big Chill moved from its Jack's Alley/Market Street location, where it had been for 16 years, to a space on Cherokee Boulevard.
Veteran restaurateur Mike Monen turned Clyde's, a former auto glass shop at 122 W. Main St., into a neighborhood tavern-style music venue. The revamped Clyde's is Monen's fifth Chattanooga restaurant, joining Community Pie, Milk and Honey, Taco Mamacita and Urban Stack.
Two blocks away, on the east side of Finley Stadium, Chattanooga Brewing Co. opened the doors this spring on a brand-new brewery/restaurant at 1804 Chestnut St. with five times the capacity of the company's former North Shore location.
At last year's Holiday Starlight Parade, Santa Claus made his appearance on Broad Street atop a fire engine.The downtown Starlight Parade for the holidays was canceled again this year due to lack of funding. In recent years, the parade has hit similar financial stumbling blocks. A funding famine in 2010 led to a one-year hiatus before the event was re-established thanks to a sponsorship from Volkswagen.
Citing lack of fan support, organizers also ended Scenic City Roots, a recurring monthly musical variety show hosted at Track 29 and broadcast live on the Internet and edited for television broadcast on WTCI.
Ruby Falls' Christmas Underground is "almost like a new path to the North Pole," says public relations manager Meagan Jolley.Two new Christmas-themed attractions opened this year. Just weeks after closing up its terrifying Haunted Cavern attraction, Ruby Falls welcomed visitors back into a normally unvisited section of the cave that had been redecorated as a subterranean wonderland dubbed Christmas Underground. At Camp Jordan in East Ridge, more than 300,000 lights illuminated a 1.5-mile driving path in the Night of Lights holiday showcase, which also featured Christmas music played over vehicles' radios.
Barking Legs Theater will show off its new look with a party Friday night. The evening includes dance music, videos documenting the venue's 20-year history and a cake to commemorate the renovations.After 21 years hosting artistic performances of all types, Barking Legs on Dodds Avenue shut down at the end of the summer to prepare for $156,000 in renovations designed to make it more open and accessible for patrons and more user friendly for performances. The theater reopened in October.
The Chattanooga Choo Choo basks in the setting sun in Chattanooga, Tenn., in this file photo.At the Chattanooga Choo Choo, one of the city's oldest and most iconic facilities, officials announced plans to make over the property, renovating everything from the hotel rooms to the lobby. Other plans include opening a new music venue along with Track 29, which is still there and moving The Comedy Catch from its Brainerd Road location to the space once occupied by the recently closed Station House. Some rooms will converted into apartments, as well.
Turns out rock 'n' roll IS noise pollutionWhile homeowners near Track 29, located in the Chattanooga Choo Choo, were asking the city to strengthen its noise ordinance to give them some relief from what they say is very loud music from the club, the city instead created an entertainment district with new restrictions it says protect neighborhoods while also allowing for a vibrant live music scene.
DoubleTree Chattanooga, site of the ChattaNew Year Coca-Cola bottle drop.The first community-wide New Year's Eve party in 15 years, the event featured a play zone for kids, music, a celebration of local iconic businesses and a large lighted Coca-Cola bottle drop at midnight.
Clyde Stubblefield, a Chattanooga native and the original "funky drummer" who provided the back beat for James Brown, was featured at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center on Clyde Stubblefield Day (Nov. 8). As part of the event, organizers screened "Copyright Criminals," a film about music sampling, something that Stubblefield's work is often used for, and a Q&A.
Onstage this year
Many noteworthy national acts performed on Scenic City stages in 2014, including:
* Widespread Panic
* Boston
* Yonder Mountain String Band
* Blues Traveler
* Trampled By Turtles
* STS9
* Shovels and Rope
* Hank Williams III
* Noam Pikelny
* Lindsey Stirling
* Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings
* JJ Grey and Mofro
* Old Crow Medicine Show
* Dr. Dog
* The 1975
* Warren Haynes
* Steep Canyon Rangers
* Justin Townes Earle
* Gary Allen
* St. Paul & The Broken Bones
* Big Gigantic
* Neon Trees
* Buddy Guy
* Chris Robinson Brotherhood
* Del McCoury
* Allen Stone
* Blackberry Smoke
* Devil Makes Three
* Jimmy Eat World
* Rhonda Vincent
* Railroad Earth
* Umphrey's McGee
* Of Montreal
* John Cowan Band
* Joe Bonamassa
* Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
* Ray LaMontagne
* Don Williams
* Jerry Seinfeld
Compiled by staff writers Casey Phillips and Barry Courter.