A few key players prove that downtown Knoxville can rock with the best of 'em

by Jesse Fox Mayshark

Okay, maybe it wasn't a miracle. Maybe in some other cities, a large crowd of people enjoying an outdoor concert and quaffing beer on a clear October night in the middle of downtown would be just another weekend. But in Knoxville last Friday, it seemed like something wonderful.

On the surface, it was just a rock 'n' roll show—a CD release concert by local favorites the V-Roys, a night of mutual appreciation between them and their fans before the band hits the road. But just as John Fogerty's July concert at the World's Fair Park helped show our out-of-town consultants the potentials of the park's South Lawn, the V-Roys' show demonstrated what downtown boosters have been saying for years: civic events in the middle of the city can bring the whole town to life.

AC Entertainment, which organized the show and deserves kudos for its success, estimated Friday's turnout at about 2,000 people. That's more than anyone's seen there recently during Market Square's only "official" annual event, the lackluster Dogwood Arts Festival. And it was a diverse group, too—college students, parents with children, professionals young and old.

What's more, a lot of them were drinking beer—the New Knoxville Brewing Company went through 15 kegs of its premium ales. (You can partly thank the V-Roys for that—AC president Ashley Capps said the band didn't want to play unless its fans could have a brew or two.) But for all the loud music, alcohol, and undeniable boisterousness... nothing bad happened. No fights, no shoving matches, nobody even stepped on a flower. "You know all those beautiful chrysanthemums that are down there?" Capps asks. "Not a single one was damaged."

The Tomato Head restaurant on the square was predictably packed all night. But the spillover didn't stop there. Over at the Great Southern Brewing Company on Gay Street, the party went on until well after midnight. "It was probably the third-largest [sales night] we've ever had," brewpub owner Chris Delp said. "It was huge for us."

So what are the lessons here? One, people will come downtown if you give them the right event and the right setting. Two, street parties do not necessarily equal street violence. Three, 2,000 people on Market Square can make more nightlife than 100,000 people on the waterfront for Boomsday (where most of the sales are by street vendors and everyone leaves the city the moment it's over). And four, Knoxville does have the resources to pull this sort of thing off.

The last point is an important one— Capps admits it was hard drumming up interest in the show (apart from New Knoxville Brewing, the primary co-sponsor was the Market Square-based Cyberflix). But Delp says he'd love to get behind any future efforts, and there are surely other businesses in the central city that understand how much such events can mean to them.

Of course, we're not going to get a V-Roys show every month, and not everything has to revolve around Market Square. But it may be time for city officials—who helped make Friday's show happen—and private interests to think again about block parties on Gay Street, about more activity in the Old City, about ways to make people feel like they're part of something they can only find here. And if you still think Knoxville can't do that, just ask anyone who was there Friday night.