Following a two-day bluegrass festival, some Chattanooga businesses are reporting a successful weekend, while others are striking a different chord.
Bluegrass Live, the two-day festival component of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass event, took to the stage Friday and Saturday at Miller Park, Miller Plaza and Patten Square. World of Bluegrass marked the first of at least three years in Chattanooga, following the event’s move from Raleigh, North Carolina.
As the new home for the event, Chattanooga was “off-the-charts great,” association Executive Director Ken White said by phone.
“I thought it was a huge success,” White said. “When you throw a party, you wonder if people are going to show up. So, there was a little bit of that for me, and then people came out. They really showed up to support it, and I was just so pleased with the way things went.”
For the festival, road closures affected several downtown streets in Chattanooga’s central business district, and cloth-covered fencing cordoned off the ticketed section of the festival from the free-to-access section that ran along Market Street. The closures had differing effects on local businesses.