The entertainment calendar in our area has always had its share of festivals featuring live music with events like Prater’s Mill in North Georgia, the Strawberry Festival in Dayton and the Cornbread Festival in South Pittsburg.
Those typically feature a well-known headliner with hit songs, along with several local acts. It was a formula that worked for many years and one that was utilized for the first 38 years by the Riverbend Festival, which was the largest festival in the region until Bonnaroo and its 80,000 capacity came online in 2002 in Manchester, Tennessee.
That formula has changed over the years, and I think we are better for it. I’ve always maintained that our music scene will have arrived, so to speak, when acts that don’t have a presence on big radio stations sell well here.
A healthy live music market is one that embraces discovery and diversity.