Lexington, KY - Summer is here, and the south side of town is quickly becoming one of the premier areas in Lexington for summer music, dance and theatre.
In May, I spent a wonderful Tuesday evening attending the opening of the Southland Jamboree bluegrass music festival on Southland Drive next to Collins Bowling Lanes. The season opener was local bluegrass band Howard's Creek, and a huge crowd showed up to sit on blankets and lawn chairs and enjoy great bluegrass music on a summer evening.
The Southland Jamboree will be held this summer every Tuesday evening for 15 weeks running through late August. Concerts usually start around 7 p.m., and folks arrive early to dine at Southland area restaurants and to enjoy festivities with other concertgoers. Children run around having fun on the grass while the band plays, and after the show a number of concertgoers usually unpack their own fiddles, guitars, banjos and basses and strike up a jam session.
As you read this, I hope you were able to catch Ms. Dale Ann Bradley, who gave a solo performance at the Jamboree on June 22. Ms. Bradley is widely known in bluegrass music circles for receiving Female Vocalist of the Year for 2007, 2008 and 2009 at the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) awards in Nashville. Appearances by premier bluegrass artists like Ms. Bradley show just how important the Southland Jamboree has become in a few short years. Perhaps in recognition of this, Mayor Newberry has issued a Mayoral Proclamation declaring Southland Drive as "Lexington's Music Row" due to the substantial contribution of the Southland Jamboree and the many area music stores to Lexington's quality of life.
Over in the Beaumont Circle area, folks have been anxiously awaiting the completion of "Moondance at Midnight Pass," a new multi-use amphitheatre designed by Lexington architect Clive Pohl and constructed by developer Andy Haymaker. The new amphitheatre will hold audiences of up to 1,000 people on blankets and lawn chairs, and work is expected to be completed by the beginning of August. According to Haymaker, "Most of the work goes into features that are located underground, so it really looks like construction is picking up pace when we finally start to build the structure up."
The audience area at Moondance at Midnight Pass is made up of a number of tiered lawns, with a state-of-the-art audio/visual building in back for managing lights and sound during performances. The stage area includes necessary facilities for costume changes, and the stage floor itself will use a wood-like composite material especially designed for dancers.
Moondance at Midnight Pass has been designed for small music groups, dancers and actors alike. Ticketing and performances will be coordinated through LexArts, and a number of events are already booked for the amphitheatre through this fall. Organizers are looking ahead with hopes of establishing a new signature concert series at Moondance at Midnight Pass in 2011.
One of most important components of economic development is creating a place where people and businesses want to be. A great town has a great quality of life. And from what I have seen, the Southland Jamboree and Moondance at Midnight Pass will be improving Lexington's quality of life with lively summer entertainment for years and years to come.