Free Fridays Concert Series, Gainesville, FL

Free Fridays! Free Fridays! Free concert series returns on May 6th

by Suzanna Mars | April 25, 2011

Friday, May 6th marks the return of Free Fridays, the popular annual concert series presented by the City of Gainesville Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs.  The concert series is Gainesville’s longest continuously running music program and it attracts nearly 20,000 people each year to the Bo Diddley Community Plaza in downtown Gainesville.

Entertainment coordinator David Ballard, now in his fourth year of booking the Plaza stage, says that the line-up for 2011 will offer some old favorites and will introduce exciting new bands to the venue.  Under Ballard’s direction, attendance has grown considerably. Some of the concerts—most notably a Woodstock tribute show in 2009—drew 3,000 people to the amphitheatre that sits adjacent to the city’s downtown entertainment district.  Crowds of over 1,000 persons are now par for the course. Before Ballard’s tenure, a concert that drew 300 people would have been a high-water mark; now it is in the lower end.

The season kicks off, as it did last year, with Hogtown Music Heroes.  Gainesville has produced many musicians who have gone on to become legends, and this concert celebrates not only their music but also that of those they have influenced.  The influence of Gainesville musicians on rock music has been tremendous, so expect to hear a wide array of selections from a diverse group that includes The Eagles, Crosby, Stills and Nash, the Stones, the Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Otis Redding. 

Other highlights of the season include the Allman Brothers tribute show and the Relics in a return of the Woodstock tribute so popular two years ago.  The Black Music Month spectacular that brings in Jacksonville’s high-energy reggae funksters De Lions of Jah and young local stars Third Stone is in June.  Also playing during June are Little Jake Mitchell and the Soul Searchers and newcomers Fast Lane.

As has become tradition, The University of Florida World Music Ensembles’ explosion of color and sound closes out the season on October 14^th. 

Mr. Ballard selects bands to represent as many musical styles as possible.  North Central Florida is known for its folk, bluegrass, and roots music, which are represented in the series by Patchwork, Tom Shed, and Quartermoon.  The Gramfest, an annual former standalone celebration of the music of Gram Parsons, becomes part of the series on September 30^th.   Country music is represented by Caitlin Eadie (returning for her fourth year) and newcomer Danny Wooten; “old school” R & B cats 6^thStreet Rhythm & Blues Review will have concertgoers grooving on May 27^th.  Velveeta Underground brings its anti-cheese repertoire to the stage on July 8, a week after the annual All-American Songfest that has become a tradition under Mr. Ballard’s direction.  Don Austin, one-half of the Velveeta Underground duo, explains the appeal of the Plaza as having both a economic and a philosophical importance:

“I miss a lot of great shows because they generally cost money. The Friday concerts at the Plaza are free and very special to me because my music projects are showcased once a year in such a way as to make it seem as though I'm playing Carnegie Hall or some like venue. The Plaza stage is situated in such a way as to make the audience feel the same way and together, for a brief period of time we can all get a sense of being a part of history and have a great time for a great price.”

It’s hard to say which of the shows will be the largest, but history shows that the Impostors’ Beatles songbook draws big on the Plaza stage. The “Fab Four” never go out of style and neither does the Imposters’  infectious take on them, making it the season’s largest group sing-a-long.  The Plaza is the place to be on May 20th if you want to stand shoulder to shoulder with a stranger singing “Eight Days a Week” at the top of your voice. Don David, Impostors singer/guitarist, says of the Free Friday experience, “The Plaza stage and the Free Fridays series is special to me because of the positive energy that is created and shared when we (The Impostors) are there. I think that by performing the music of The Beatles, we all get to tap into the 60's again. It's like time travel -- without all the expensive machinery and inherent danger!”

Original music comes from Morningbell, whose “Marching Off to War” is a percussion and vocal performance not to be missed.  Morningbell performs on July 22^nd.  More originality-and personality—comes from Charles Ray Martin’s Righteous Kind.  Mr. Martin is a local legend, an internationally respected chemist and UF Distinguished Professor who is unapologetically the music scene’s biggest self-promoter and outsized creative persona.  He stresses the legacy of Bo Diddley to the concerts when he says, “The Bo Diddley Downtown Plaza is Gainesville’s solar plexus of musical performance. On a dog-day Friday in July when 2000 people are crawling and carpeted across the lawn, you can hear Bo’s heartbeat backing the band - bop-bop-bop…….bop-bop – as sure as he is standing there behind the stage. That’s why The Righteous Kind are so proud to be playing the Plaza on July 29. We’re bringing body heat, you bring yours, and let’s raise the entropy of the universe, baby. “

 What the Plaza means to a concertgoer  is summed up by Gainesville native and musician Bill Perry, who has long roots in the local scene.  “...such great musicians (who are )doing music the audience wants to dance to and feel: I too want to be there. In a great space, with the best friends in the world in Gainesville, beautiful weather and all. (It is) well worth my time to go to music on the Plaza.” 

As a performing venue, the Plaza amphitheatre is unique in the region.  David Ballard says the stage is “a remarkable design because it creates different levels for the audience; it means that everyone—even thousands of people—can see what is happening on the stage and can really enjoy watching musicians play.”  He adds that it is one of the “best little concert arenas I have seen.  It was designed to be a lovely little amphitheatre and the levels are really what make it work.”  Gainesville is the unofficial Music Capital of Florida and the Free Fridays Concert Series continue the tradition of the city as a breeding ground for musical excellence.  Since Gainesville is a hub city for the North Central Florida region, the concerts draw from a 100-mile radius that extends past Ocala and over to Jacksonville and down to Tampa.  It is not uncommon for tourists to find the concerts when they are spending a weekend in Gainesville; the Plaza is right across the street from the new Hampton Inn and it is a block from the city’s popular downtown restaurants.  The music floats across NE 1^stStreet to the outdoor dining areas at Harry’s and at Emiliano’s; enjoying a concert while eating at one of downtown’s best restaurants has become a Gainesville tradition.  On the Plaza itself, the privately owned Lunchbox Café has a patio that gives a close-up view of the concert.  Here is where to drink a few beers and listen to some tunes.  The vibe on the Plaza is mellow and the crowd is united in their enjoyment of the music.  Families bring blankets, picnics, babies, and dogs; senior citizens stake out a bench seat; amateur photographers line up at the lip of the stage, waiting for Morningbell’s Travis Atria to jump in the air; concert regulars sit on the brick wall stage left, chatting with Mr. Ballard and the big, good-natured guys from Sloan Security.

New to the Plaza stage in 2011 are The Righteous Kind, Danny Wooten, Fast Lane, Heavy Petty,  Tom Shed, and Uncle Morty’s Rhythm Cream.  An evening at the Plaza is a not-to-be-missed Gainesville experience.  Meet the locals, get sweaty dancing, buy a sticky-sweet Italian ice from Steve the hotdog vendor, and get your groove going under the stars above—a Free Fridays concert is one of Gainesville’s biggest cultural attractions.

The 24-concert series runs from May 6-October 14 from 8-10 PM at the Bo Diddley Community Plaza.

City of Gainesville Free Fridays Web site with 2011 line-up here.

 

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