MANSFIELD – Richland County’s favorite kickoff to summer has officially launched its newest lineup of local music.
Downtown Mansfield, Inc. (DMI) released the 2017 Final Friday concert series during an official launch party on Thursday evening. The artists include a mix of new and old faces as the Final Friday series celebrates its 10th anniversary.
“Seeing our work compounded into bodies for a concert that nobody really ever thought was going to go anywhere, it was time for us to put skin in the game,” said Jamie Thompson, chief development officer at DMI. “Tonight represents all of that, not only a thank-you to longtime sponsors but also giving them the opportunity to continue to give to us.”
The 2017 Final Friday concert series will kick off on May 26 with Kelly Vaughn, Acoustic Edge, and Monica Robins & Ninja Cowboys. The following month on June 30 will host Ricky Mitchell, Gringo Stew, and the Jimmy Warner Band.
Appearing at the Brickyard on July 28 will be Luther Trammell, the Jeffrey Boyd Quartet, and Alter Ego. On August 25, performers include Jai Merina, the Jimi Vincent Band, and the Red Ball Jets.
Closing out the Final Friday concert series this year will be Chase Beaire, 45 Spider, and Third Degree Sideburn on September 29.
Hosting a launch party to announce this year’s series was necessitated by demand, said DMI’s CEO Jennifer Kime.
“It really made sense for us when people started asking us in November who was playing,” said Kime with a laugh. “In years past we would get questions in maybe April, last year it was in January, but this year it was like, we hadn’t even gotten to Christmas yet! The interest in it is huge.”
Though the Final Friday concerts have been around for the past 10 years, the series hit its stride in late 2013. For seven years, the Final Friday concerts were performed at the south end of the Brickyard on a small concrete stage. During the final show of 2014, the venue was so packed it prompted both Thompson and Kime to flip the script.
“When 2015 launched we started out at the bottom of the hill, and I don’t know that we ever really set out to do that, but we were on the path then to fundraising for a stage,” Thompson said.
The 2015 Final Friday series ended with a “bonus” September show on the brand-new Brickyard stage. The 2016 series was the first full series to be played on the new stage, officially dubbed the Richland Source Pavilion after Richland Source entered into an agreement with DMI to be its naming sponsor.
Kime noted last year’s focus was maintaining crowd growth and keeping the concert series from fizzling out. With a crowd attraction topping 10,000 people in August 2016 , DMI no longer has that problem.
“By the end of last year we realized these people probably aren’t going anywhere,” Kime said. “Now our challenge organizationally is how do we make this better. We want this to be a great experience for everybody, and with a growing audiences those challenges grow.”
Part of bettering the Final Friday experience includes a brand-new DMI office space adjacent to the Brickyard. The organization officially purchased the 128 N. Main St. building as a permanent office in October 2016, and renovations are underway for the first floor to serve as an event space during Final Fridays.
“We can pull people in and have an artist lounge, or a donor lounge,” Kime said. “That kind of space really adds to the element of it all.”
Another goal of the concert series as well as the new office space is building new entrepreneurs. Thompson noted there has already been a programming increase from other partner organizations taking advantage of the Brickyard space.
Organizationally for DMI, the acquisition of a new office space as well as the building of a Brickyard stage is all about permanence – a tricky thing to navigate when you’re a 501(c)3 charitable organization. However, the Brickyard has benefitted from a national trend encouraging more people to hang out in their local downtowns.
“I think people for a long time have wanted to be downtown, and we’ve managed to find a good, diverse group of musicians and lots of new and expanding businesses have been driving foot traffic,” Thompson said. “There are people we’ve seen since day one, and as downtown’s popularity has grown the marketing has continued to be positive, and we’ve finally reached critical mass.”
Though crowds have continued to grow, Kime said she hopes to measure this year’s Final Friday success based on quality, not quantity.
“We’re not viewing the concerts by how many people we can get in a space, but how was everyone’s experience there? Does everyone feel comfortable and at home here, does it still have that backyard feel to it?” she said. “We hope people come away saying this season was awesome and they had so much fun.”
