Before Vince Gill took the stage in front of 2,000 fans for the opening of the Brown County Music Center Aug. 24, Nashville and Brown County overall were seeing an increase in visitors and sales.
Over in Bean Blossom, the Bill Monroe Music Park and Campground welcomed 4,000 blues fans for the annual Bean Blossom Blues Festival that ran from Aug. 22 to 25. Attendance this year nearly doubled that of previous years, which stood around 2,200.
“It was the largest blues festival yet,” said Rex Voils, president and CEO of the music park and campground.
The music park and campground owners worked with organizer Grant Stuart to put on the annual festival.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]For the first time in at least 20 years, a person was needed to direct traffic leaving the music park after the festival. “We have directed traffic in; we never had to direct traffic out since the Bill Monroe days,” Voils said.
At Mike’s Dance Barn on State Road 46 West, Grateful Dead cover band Hyryder hosted their Lazy Summer Home music festival from Aug. 23-25.
“Saturday night it was packed. You couldn’t get another car on his (Mike’s) lot,” said Mike Lafferty during a Brown County Music Center Management Group meeting last week. Lafferty serves the management group as a financial adviser.
The Brown County Playhouse also hosted “Ring of Fire,” a Johnny Cash musical, each day of the same weekend.
Then, the evening of Aug. 24, Gill took the stage for a sold-out show at the BCMC, where he performed for nearly three hours. He was contracted to play for two.
“Obviously, from everything I hear, the grand opening was a raving success,” said management group Co-president Barry Herring.
“It’s something we should all be very proud of.”
Parking kinks
Ahead of the grand opening show, the BCMC hosted two free soft openings featuring local and regional acts to help work out the kinks at the new building.
Comments on social media reflected a mostly positive experience for guests at the Gill show, with the exception of some parking issues.
The venue had organized two 14-seat shuttles to pick up visitors at four locations: The Brown County Inn, the Seasons hotel, the Foxfire parking lot across from the BP gas station and at Brown County High School.
Herring said the management group should look into getting bigger shuttle buses because the 14 seats filled up quickly after the first stop.
The buses also lacked steps for older riders to get on. “I had to take a lady back to the Seasons because she could not step up onto the shuttle bus,” county commissioner Diana Biddle said at the management group meeting last week.
Big Woods/Hard Truth Hills and Bill Monroe’s also ran shuttles to take guests to the Gill show.
Commenters on social media questioned why the venue did not have enough parking for a sold-out show. Guests also parked in the Brown County YMCA and IGA parking lots.
The venue lost 150 parking spots when the federal government declared an emerging wetland in the planned parking lot at the BCMC. The government wanted the management group to pay $216,000 to be able to use the spots, which it did not pay.
The management group also was hoping people would choose to walk the Salt Creek Trail to the venue from town, but a lack of lighting on the trail is a detriment to that.
At the management group meeting last week, Herring said the group could consider approaching the town about using some of the 1-percent food and beverage tax to possibly fund lighting on the trail. “I’m not proposing it. It’s just something to think about,” he said.
“I know my restaurant, on Saturday night, we were swamped. That 1 percent (in food and beverage taxes) is going to skyrocket.”
Herring owns the Brown County Inn, which backs up to the trail.
The trail is eventually envisioned to connect downtown Nashville with the state park, Eagle Park and the Nashville schools campus, giving pedestrians a safe way to cross the highway at some point.
Music center management group member Jim Schultz also volunteers with the Brown County Community Foundation, and he said the foundation is playing a “leadership role” in getting the section of the trail built that would connect to the schools campus downtown, on the opposite side of the highway from where the trail exists now. It would include a crossing under State Road 46 East for pedestrian traffic.
“Right now, the timetable is longer than I would like to see it, but if that was something that could occur, then that opens a whole new realm of opportunities for parking and walkability to the facility,” Schultz said.
Out-of-town visitors
At the management group meeting, members estimated at least 80 percent of the people at the Gill show were from out of town. Concert-goers were asked to raise their hands if they were not from Brown County.
Herring suggested doing a license plate tally at the start of shows. Ticket sale demographics would not be as reliable since some tickets are bought for resale, said Executive Director Dana Beth Evans.
Shops in town also saw increases in sales and visitors.
Mark Schmidt, owner of Nashville Spice Company, saw an increase of 32 percent that weekend, “with many new customers saying they were in for the new music center,” he said in response to a question posted on Facebook.
Totem Post owner Liana Franklin said her shop was open until 8 p.m. on Aug. 24 and it had visitors the entire time.
The Toy Chest was up 60 percent in business from Friday through Sunday compared to this time last year, owner Danny Key said.
The Country Heritage Tasting Room and Winery set a record for business on a Saturday in August, said Manager Bob Smerdel.
At the Farmhouse Cafe and Tea Room, about 10 minutes outside of Nashville, business was comparable to an October weekend, Shannon Bray said on Facebook.
“The Nashville Fudge Kitchen had a great weekend,” said Manager Beth Hardesty. “Sales were much higher that last year. It was a fun weekend with all the visitors in town.”
Lacy Martin with Heritage Candy Store said the shop doubled its sales during the weekend compared to last year.
“Pretty incredible and I feel (it is) directly related to the music center and blues fest. Incredible,” she said.
Business was also up at local restaurants, like Brozinni’s pizza and Hard Truth Hills. Hard Truth Hills employee Marty Douglas said the restaurant had a record sales day on Aug. 24.
Herring and music center Co-president Kevin Ault, who owns the Seasons hotel and Hotel Nashville, both reported that their hotels were sold out. Most of their rooms were booked for the blues fest in Bean Blossom, though.
“I don’t think we will notice anything until the next show,” Herring said about rooms being booked for BCMC shows.
Evans said she received an email that a restaurant in town had sold out of all of their chicken on Saturday night because they were not expecting that large of a crowd.
Not all businesses saw an increase, though.
David La Fon owns Madeline’s French Country Shop. He said his shop saw a decrease in sales compared to the same weekend last year. “(We) even had a store-wide sale going on. I am sure hotels and food did great,” he said.
Dawn Oliver owns House of Jerky, which also did not see much of a difference in sales, she said.
“I’m sure the majority of the people that will see the big increase in sales that everyone is hoping for will be the restaurants, lodging, gas stations and dollar stores,” she said.
Oliver said if Nashville doesn’t have room to house visitors overnight, they will go to surrounding cities, like Bloomington and Columbus, where they most likely could eat before a show.
Last week, Voils said he is working with the music center to prevent that from happening by offering camping packages featuring two shows for visitors. “They need housing, and we want to keep them in Brown County and not send them to Columbus or Bloomington,” he said.
Ault said as he was leaving the Seasons to come to the management group meeting, he heard a delivery man make a comment to the front desk receptionist about the weekend’s activities. “He said, ‘I came through town on Sunday, me and my wife.’ And he said, ‘I have not seen this many people in town in years.’ He said, ‘Whatever happened this weekend is bringing Nashville back to life.’”
Voils said that making partnerships with the music venue and the Brown County Playhouse will result in bringing more people here.
“This is Brown County. Brown Countians need to work together. I’ve lived here all of my life. We just need to work together,” he said.
“It makes perfect sense. We’re (Bill Monroe’s) totally different than the music center. We’re outdoor events. We’re totally different than the Playhouse. The Playhouse can do a little, private crowd. All three should work together and bring more tourists in, more money into the county. That’s everybody’s goal is to make sure our county is the best county in the state.”
Concert traffic
Ault said he left the Gill show early to go up to the Seasons and watch traffic leave the venue. Four officers were working for the BCMC, helping to direct vehicles and pedestrians after the show. Three were at the end of Maple Leaf Boulevard and one was stationed at the Hawthorne Drive stoplight to help people safely cross State Road 46 East.
“As they were coming out of Maple Leaf Boulevard, that police officer that was there was telling everyone to stay to the left-hand side of road, walk on the side of the road and all the way to the stoplight,” Ault said.
“At one point, maybe even twice, there were people who tried to cross the road before they got to the stoplight. The police officer yelled and said, ‘You were asked to go to the light. If you can’t go to the light, we’re going to ticket you.’ A couple of people mouthed off, but they went on to the stoplight.”
Officers can write people a ticket for jaywalking across 46 East, Ault said.
“They were on top of it. … The whole traffic movement there was really good,” he said.
Biddle said that county employee Ric Fox watched traffic leave the parking lot for the two soft openings and the lot was emptied in less than 18 minutes. After the Gill show, it was empty after about 38 minutes, she said.
“The guys got the cars to the end of Maple Leaf Boulevard and if there was no one coming the other way, then of course they came out. If there was people coming, they waited until the stoplight changed to green and then they directed,” Ault said.
Some people stayed in the venue longer to purchase merchandise after the show, which helped with the flow of traffic.
“It was a longer process, but it was the way people were leaving the music center itself and not the exiting parking lot. It was a longer exit than normal,” Ault said.
He estimated that by 11:45 p.m., only an occasional car was leaving the center’s parking lot.
Fox also was helping to direct sidewalk traffic before the show. He told Biddle that he heard a compliment about the venue’s staff, “just how friendly everybody was. ‘They did a great job. Whatever they paid these people just wasn’t enough because they are so professional,’” Biddle said.
“Ric turned around and looked at the lady. He said, ‘Those are all volunteers.’ Someone behind her said, ‘That’s just Brown County.’ Ric said he never felt so proud of the community in general.”
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Another busy weekend of events is quickly approaching.
Bill Monroe Music Park and Campground will have its 45th annual Hall of Fame and Uncle Pen Days Festival from Sept. 18 to 21.
The Brown County Music Center will host two country legends: Tanya Tucker on Sept. 19 and a sold-out Clint Black show on Sept. 20.
The same weekend, the Brown County Playhouse will open its first run of “The American Variety Show” from Sept. 20 to 22. The show is a Branson, Missouri-styled show that pays tribute to “The Carol Burnett Show,” Andy Williams, Donny and Marie Osmond and “Hee Haw.”
For more information on the Playhouse shows and to purchase tickets, visit browncountyplayhouse.org.
Tickets and information for the Brown County Music Center can be found at browncounty.com/bcmc.
Bill Monroe Music Park’s schedule and tickets can be found at billmonroemusicpark.com.
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Concessions and ticket sales
The Brown County Music Center’s management group had budgeted around $7,000 in concession sales for the Vince Gill show on Aug. 24. The total ended up being over $13,000.
Then, Executive Director Dana Beth Evans said the box office made $4,000 selling tickets for upcoming shows between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. the following Monday.
“People are coming in, looking and searching. We’ve had more volunteers sign up since two soft openings,” Evans said.
It was also announced last week that the Sept. 20 Clint Black show had officially sold out.
The venue currently has more than 18,000 followers on Facebook and a post about the venue had reached nearly 500,000 people, Evans said. “Those are all organic reaches, not anything we paid. … That’s huge,” she said.
Security
Visitors to the Brown County Music Center should expect to walk through metal detectors and be wanded.
The venue currently has five wands to use and has four walk-through metal detectors, including two that were on loan from the Brown County Sheriff’s Department.
Management group members said visitors moved through the security checks more quickly for the Gill show than for the soft opening shows.
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