Something that will probably make you happy is the news that the Sundown in the City concert series, which has been a Thursday night fixture on Market Square in the spring and snarled traffic at some of our Thursday night Masterworks concerts, is no more. I have mixed feelings about this. While yes, the traffic, crowds and parking were abominable, it shouts “failure” at the city of Knoxville’s inability to handle multiple cultural events in a single night. What started out as a cool way to start the weekend with world-renowned acts playing free concerts on Market Square became an unmanageable monster with a few (or maybe more than a few) irresponsible folks ruining it for others. The shows I attended were all fun, (Little Feat, Erick Baker, Umphree’s McGee, Bela Fleck, more) and I found it amusing to see just how crazy Knoxville could get. But apparently many others did not share my amusement.
Speaking of Erick Baker, you may remember that one of our youth ensemble directors, Erin Archer, was a part of Erick’s band, playing viola. She was the director of the Preludium orchestra, the youngest contingent of the KSYO program. Well, she stepped aside from that post because she was pregnant with triplets, and on March 18th, Christopher, Megan and Samantha arrived, and now babies make five for Erin and hubby Carey Archer!! You can follow their experiences raising triplets at www.archertriplets.blogspot.com
1 comment:
"While yes, the traffic, crowds and parking were abominable, it shouts “failure” at the city of Knoxville’s inability to handle multiple cultural events in a single night."
The city will have to deal with transportation and access as a real issue if downtown is to progress beyond current levels. Downtown is already too diluted by space wasted in surface parking. In other words, there are too many cars trying to park in too small an area. More public transit and peripheral shuttles are the only solutions.
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