Capitol Hill Block Party, photo: Peter Kearns
This post first appeared as an editorial on The Urban Core blog. I am reprinting it here for archival purposes.
What do all these places have in common? Jacksonville Beach, Mandarin, St. John’s Town Center, San Marco, Southbank, Northbank, St. Augustine, Orange Park. They have a festival taking place in the coming months. I was looking at the festival issue of Entertaining You and I realized there is one glaring omission: Springfield.
I guess I can’t say there are no festivals in Springfield. There is Dog Days in the Park, Heritage Days, the Crap Fair and maybe one or two others I’m missing. But I’d like something different. What I’d like to see is more along the lines of a music festival, something like SXSW, but divided by 10. You know, much smaller.
I’m thinking a one day thing. It doesn’t have to be big, and probably shouldn’t be to get started. We can close off a block of Laura Street (I know this is possible, it’s been done before), get a couple of port-o-potties, some kegs of beer, a few local bands, a stage and go from there. It can’t be that hard right?
Of course there are other things we’ll need like:
- Power
- Security
- Food and drink vendors
- Permits
- Sponsors
Capitol Hill Block Party, photo: Peter Kearns
I’m sure there are quite a few logistics involved in doing this, but I know of two people who have organized something similar in Springfield and Riverside so it’s not impossbile. I’m using the Capitol Hill Block Party in Seattle as inspiration. I think something like this will bring the community together and inspire people to create similar events in their own neighborhoods.
Most of all I want more fun things to do in Jacksonville.
Reporting from Springfield, this is Joey Marchy and I blog at urbanjacksonville.info. You can contact me there if you want to get down and organize or have ideas/input.
I could not agree with you more and if you were going to pull on the strengths of Springfield I think the festival should focus on Independent unsigned Music (like SXSW) with DJ spinning in between acts to provide a constant day of entertainment. Art, vendors, food, and organizations out there shaking hands and every interesting person hanging out for the day - Is see it. I would love to join in on it if if happens. I have some friends who put on The WE Fest in Wilmington - unsigned, independent music that costs $1 to enter each day with music for 3 days I think.
Joey-
In Atlanta, they have this thing called Draft on Taft, a huge party basically in the middle of the street in a small residential neighborhood, not unlike Springfield. I went a few years back and it was a lot of fun. Those organizers might have good info for you– as for me, that is about the best input I have.