Chattanooga’s Friends of the Festival, the organization that produced the Riverbend Festival for nearly 40 years and the Riverfront Nights summer series for more than a decade, is back in business.
Hit hard by the pandemic, the event producer will return June 5 to Ross’s Landing with Electric Avenue kicking off a 10-show Riverfront Nights series. They will be followed by LVNDR opening for Southern Ave on June 12, then Three Star Revival opening for Trigger Hippie on June 19 and Rick Rushing opening for the Al Ghent Band on June 26.
Friends of the Festival announced in November it would be cutting most of its staff, keeping Mickey McCamish as executive director and Karen Shostak to handle sales and development. Veteran venue director and music programmer Mike Dougher (Songbirds, Rhythm & Brews, the Sandbar) has been brought on to book the series.
McCamish said at the time he would begin liquidating assets such as staging, fencing and other materials, but said Thursday they kept the portable stage and will use it for Riverfront Nights and a smaller Riverbend Festival “sometime in the fall.”
“We are just so excited to get back out and open up the city,” he said. “We need this. The city needs this.”