Fridays After 5, in its latest incarnation, has announced both the location and the lineup for the first half of the season, WINA reports. It’ll be held at the corner of First Street and Garrett Street, behind the Pink Warehouse, its location until the amphitheater exists again. The bands in the May-June chunk of the season include Indecision, Alligator, the Chickenhead Blues Band, and the Hackensaw Boys.
Those who don’t follow these things closely may appreciate knowing that the city sold the rights to the public amphitheater to developer Coran Capshaw last year, he promised to maintain some incarnation of Fridays after 5, and the Charlottesville Downtown Foundation closed shop in January, since without Fridays, they’ve got no revenue stream.
Update: John Yellig has the story in today’s Progress.
I am constantly amazed at how many acts Charlottesville is able to bring in. The local bands are great to have, and I am incredibly excited about Lyle Lovett and Nicklecreek. How many other small towns have such incredible music?
This whole thing royally pisses me off. We had this great public asset in the amphiteater. It worked just fine and cost very little to maintain. So City Council took this thing and decided to spend millions of dollars on it in order to have a new venue for which there is not nearly enough parking and then they GAVE THE FREAKING THING AWAY TO A MILLIONAIRE DEVELOPER.
With a 50 year sweetheart lease deal. We (the people of Charlottesville) will finally get our amphitheater back right about when it will be falling to pieces and in need of millions of dollars of renovation.
It’s a combination of the worst stereotypes of Democrats combined with the worst stereotypes of Republicans. Lots and lots of money spent on something that we didn’t much need plus the handing over of public assets to extremely wealthy private parties.
I count a number of our city councilors as friends but come primary season next year these people all have some ‘splainin to do.
Is there an online location of the complete lineup?
Someone’s going to bitch about anything.
The amphitheater is going to be a great space with a great lineup of acts. Everyone in this town, especially downtown businesses (including those on the previously dead-after-dark east end of the mall) are going to benefit. In city hands, the amphitheater would continue to be just a low-profile, poorly managed space that sits empty for 345 days a year.
I don’t understand how people can complain that there is no parking downtown. There are more than a 1000 spaces in the Water Street garage – a garage that has never been filled at any time, ever.
No need to wonder how the new Fridays After Five is getting great local and national acts – its the same millionaire developer that Jack is complaining about.
I’m excited about all of the projects going on downtown – they make it a lively place to be, and Charlottesville will only be more world-class when they are finished.
Is there an online location of the complete lineup?
Not that I can find.
I’m agreeing with Jack’s sentiments. It’s a smaller scale equivalent of what large cities do when they agree to use public money to finance a new football stadium for a bunch of billionaire owners, especially (in most cases) when a perfectly useable venue already exists but just isn’t “brand new”. It was a bad move, but now the city has to live with it.
The only schedule I could find…http://www.charlottesvillepavilion.com/sched.asp. It only has acts listed through July 29. I saw on NBC 29 the new pavilion is supposed to open by August…I guess that means the gigs listed on the website are at Garrett Street, and they’re waiting on making sure the pavilion will be ready before the rest are announced. Looks like a great lineup though.
I can definitely sympathize with the comments regarding “giving away” the ampitheatre. I do like to see publically owned and operated ventures, as opposed to putting many goods in the hands of just a few people. It seems like the individual who is developing this property is in the news every other day (or was in the fall) about some property he was buying. It makes me nervous to put so much of Charlottesville in the hands on one individual.
I also see the public benefit, though, in terms of great music, more business for the downtown mall (how many stores are currently doing well?), and more community events. I wonder how much the city has structured up this private development. What worries me is not that it is privately funded, but that it might be privately controlled to a large degree. I would like to see the city and its citizens maintain control of something so big.
I will miss the ampitheater and don’t agree with the move but remember what Friday’s used to be like before the ampitheater even existed?
I remember what it used to be like before the ampitheater existed. While it was often alternated between either end of the downtown mall, it always felt to me like a neighborhood block party. I’ll just have to wait and see what it will be like once the Ampitheater’s finished.
And as for all the “events” the new ownership/management will bring to the downtown mall… they will all be “For Profit” endeavors using a city owned venue for the benefit of a private party. Only the new incarnation of Fridays after 5 is supposed to be free.