For many, Riverbend is as much about seeing old friends and people-watching as it is about the music. The festival’s 30-year anniversary is this year and events take place from June 10-18.To illustrate just how important the Riverbend Festival has been to Chattanooga over the last 30 years, Ken Hays, a partner with developers Kinsey Probasco Hays, points to the year that it almost fizzled.
In 2004, the city was in the middle of a three-year project to completely redo the riverfront area that serves as home to the festival. Rather than cancel or temporarily relocate the event, work on the $120 million 21st Century Waterfront Plan was stopped for four weeks.
“It was an unbelievable case of people working together,” said Hays, who served as chief of staff for former Mayor Jon Kinsey in 1997-2001 and president of the RiverCity Company from 2000-2004. “To stop construction for a four-week time to allow Riverbend to go on was not easy.”
This year’s festival starts Friday, with headliners including Miranda Lambert, Alan Jackson and Huey Lewis and the News.
The festival was created in 1981 at a time when civic leaders were looking to draw people back to a dormant downtown.