Double-minded developer-toady HARRIS still has his hooks in City Hall, as evidenced by his text message to Commissioner ROXANNE HORVATH in support of developer KANTI PATEL's too-big Renaissance Hotel SAN MARCO HOTEL PUD. HARRISS now works for Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, helping SHOAR shovel money to and from his phony charity, the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office Four Star Association, Inc.
Posted September 3, 2017 02:02 am
By STUART KORFHAGE stuart.korfhage@staugustine.com
THE NEXT AUSTIN? St. Augustine will state its case at Sing Out Loud Festival
When the biggest music festival in St. Johns County drops this week, rest assured the goal is not to make more money for Hotel X or Beer Company Z.
The real purpose of the Sing Out Loud Festival, which kicks off on Friday, is to fuel the creative spirit of St. Augustine musicians and show it off to music lovers across the area.
If that throws a little gas on the local economy, that’s fine with festival organizer Ryan Murphy. But his goal is bigger, and his view is longer.
He’s determined to foster the growing movement that’s making St. Augustine one of the more interesting places in the country to be a musician — or at least one of the best places to stop during a tour.
“The main mission for myself is to help elevate the local artists and the local music scene,” said Murphy, who is the county’s director of cultural events. “I really see this as a great investment in the local music community because I feel a lot of it gets underserved.
“The cooler this town is in the music community the more secure our jobs are.”
The grand vision
While one of Murphy’s main duties is to book national acts for the St. Augustine Amphitheatre and Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, his major passion is to grow and enhance this area’s reputation as a place that embraces musicians — whether it’s the superstars playing to thousands or the indie bands traveling around to bars.
Murphy isn’t shy about what he wants St. Augustine to become. He wants the city to be more than a nice vacation town that hosts the occasional festival. He wants this to be comparable to Austin, Texas, which is billed as The Live Music Capital of the World.
“I’ve actually said that to people,” St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Shaver said of the comparison to Austin. “I didn’t realize he’d said that years ago.”
While St. Augustine isn’t as big as Austin and doesn’t currently have the shear volume of venues, Murphy said the city has the built-in audience and growing base of talent to pull it off. His role is to feed the fire that’s already burning here.
Sing Out Loud, in just its second year, has grown into a festival that will feature free shows all over St. Augustine during every full weekend this month. And it will mark the third straight September with a free music festival.
The trend actually started with Mumford & Sons’ Gentlemen of the Road Stopover in 2013. While that tour stop was a ticketed event, there were stages all over town with free shows to support the event.
That was followed in 2015 by the 450th celebration, which featured a large number of free musical performances on stages big and small. Sing Out Loud was hatched last year, and it’s just grown from there.
The festival is paid for with funds from the Tourist Development Council, sponsors and simple cooperation and donations from local businesses. But Murphy said the shows aren’t aimed at tourists.
They’re set up for locals. But because of the location of some of the stages (like on Aviles Street or Colonial Oak Showcase on St. George Street) and because of some of the big names involved, Murphy knows visitors will find the festival appealing. He just wants it to feel authentic.
“Last year, we felt a little more pressure to put heads in beds,” Murphy said. “If that happens, that’s great. But this year, by not stressing about it too much, I feel like we’re getting more feedback (about people interested in coming).
“We’re not purposely marketing that, but we are giving great content to the ones that do market this town. They just have to use it.”
Those who do market St. Augustine often talk about how “experiential” travel is gaining more traction in the market. Travelers want to feel what makes a destination interesting, and music seems to be one of the best ways for people to get a positive impression of a place.
“It’s a magical place, and then you have really good local music layered in, it’s a great experience, which is what the next generation of people who visit us will be looking for, are looking for,” Shaver said.
Music all the time
For those who do enjoy concerts but maybe aren’t that aggressive in seeking out local shows, it might not be apparent just how dynamic and vibrant the music scene is in St. Augustine.
One of the more exciting aspects of Sing Out Loud for those musicians is the opportunity to showcase their talents for fresh audiences.
St. Augustine musician Aslyn Baringer plays in two bands that will perform in Sing Out Loud, Aslyn & the Naysayers and Sugarbeats. She said she’s looking forward to playing different venues and even different times of day than what is typical.
And by having more than 100 bands playing throughout the weekends, Baringer said she hopes visitors and locals alike get a sense of how much St. Augustine has to offer.
“I think it brings awareness of the local music scene and that it’s not just some guy with an acoustic guitar playing Jimmy Buffett covers,” Baringer said. “It really is amazing, creative musicians.
“The more people that hear great music, the more they’ll come out on a random day.”
Baringer is from St. Augustine and said she knows this hasn’t always been a place with a reputation for burgeoning creative talent. But that’s exactly what she sees now.
The fact that the Amphitheatre and Concert Hall bring some of the nation’s best talent here just adds to the appeal.
“I think a lot of people do move here because it is a bit of a creative town,” Baringer said. “I think the fact that the Amphitheatre is giving them that outlet to enjoy it without leaving is a big deal.
“I think so many more people are enjoying so much more music and art because they don’t have to drive to Jacksonville or Orlando.”
Where to play
Aslyn & the Nasayers are regulars at Prohibition Kitchen on St. George Street. It has a large stage near the front door, which puts the whole focus of the establishment on the entertainment.
That was done by design. The Sheltra family, which owns the restaurant, said having quality live music was going to be a staple when they opened less than a year ago. And they’ve made good on the promise.
Baringer said she just wishes there were more places like Prohibition Kitchen.
“(Having) places like that, if we just keep going in that direction, the sky’s the limit,” she said. “I don’t think it will just be kind of a small town feel like we’ve always had. It’ll be more of a, ‘Oh man, this sounds really good. This is a great place to see music.’
“I definitely thinks there’s potential. And I think big cities like Austin and New Orleans do things like that.”
Someone else who saw the potential of the music scene here is Ryan Kunsch, who opened Planet! Sarbez! with his wife a few years ago.
The store/bar/restaurant/music venue on Anastasia Island regularly plays host to local musicians and indie touring groups.
Kunsch said St. Augustine has been a beacon for creative people, but he felt they needed a place to unleash that creativity. The fine arts graduate of Flagler College said he knows musicians who play sets of cover songs at the tourist-friendly bars just to make money for their real passion of making original music.
“That was one thing I really wanted to touch upon: Come here and play your original music,” Kunsch said. “We’re not just catering to the tourists.
“It’s really cool and exciting to have that aspect of being able to play for good money and also let loose on the side.”
While Murphy and his team are doing their part to promote local music, Kunsch said the artists themselves are doing a great job bolstering the scene.
For instance, on nights that Planet! Sarbez! has a touring act on stage, there will often be a couple of local bands that open. Kunsch said he’ll sometimes see the locals give their pay and tips to the touring musicians because they know it’s difficult to make a living that way and they want to be supportive.
It’s that spirit that has more artists calling St. Augustine home. Kunsch said he had three different musicians come by Planet! Sarbez! Tuesday saying they were new in town. He told them to come for open mic night. And they did.
“I was there all day and night and I heard them play and they were just so good,” Kunsch said. “Musicians and creative people seek out creative places, and they’ll find it one way or another. They’re definitely moving here.”
New Austin?
Will all of that momentum lead to St. Augustine becoming the next Austin? That’s a pretty ambitious goal.
But Murphy said the reputation is building. He talked about it at a recent TDC meeting.
“When I was in Philadelphia recently, my colleagues who run a lot of the promotions up there and a lot of the venues, they said every artist who comes through is talking about St. Augustine as the next Austin or it is the next musical destination of a lot of artists,” he said. “We’re getting a lot of feedback, and I think that’s great because I remember trying to say that a few years ago, and finally people are just repeating it and maybe that’s the way it works.
“I think it’s nice that people are identifying us as something special.”
With an estimated 250 venues, a long-running music-themed television program in “Austin City Limits,” and the ability to host huge festivals including the annual South by Southwest, Austin has set the bar in a lofty space.
However, Sing Out Loud is expected to be another reminder that something remarkable is going on here, even if it’s not on the scale of Texas’ capital city.
“It’s really cool to have something like that happening in such a small town,” Kunsch said.
Added Shaver: “We’re at this beautiful moment where it’s just emerging, and as residents we can enjoy it, and it’s still kind of a secret.”
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Posted September 3, 2017 06:29 am
By STUART KORFHAGE stuart.korfhage@staugustine.com
Why be like Austin? The place has rhythm
Some people in St. Augustine want this city to become something of a second Austin. But why?
Mainly, because the music industry helps make Austin one of the more popular places to live or visit in Texas — maybe even the entire country.
Also, it’s a business that is lucrative in itself and complements other businesses, especially in the hospitality industry.
A 2016 report from trade association and advocacy group Austin Music People calculated the economic impact of the Austin music industry based on 2014 data at more than $1.8 billion.
The city has an estimated 250 music venues, which at one time was believed to be the highest per capita in the country.
According to Austin National Public Radio, the Austin city government officially adopted the slogan “Live Music Capital of the World” in 1991.
Whether Austin really is the live music capital is up for debate, but the slogan is all Austin’s.
The city is serious about supporting the music industry and promoting it.
Much like St. Augustine, tourism is huge in Austin, and much of that is tied to music.
Not only does the city have many regular hot spots for music, but it also hosts several large festivals.
The website Downtown Austin estimates that Austin gets more than 24 million visitors per year and sees $7 billion in annual spending from those visitors.
Austin is a much bigger place, so St. Augustine will never match those numbers. But many would love to see St. Augustine emulate the music scene. It’s something that could benefit residents as much or more than tourists.
Omar Lozano, music industry marketing manager for Visit Austin, said the great thing about Austin’s music scene is the variety. He said you can go out on a given night and experience almost any style of music.
“We have a really interesting and authentic and widespread music scene,” Lozano said. “And we’re able to utilize that and give back to that as much as possible in our tourism and marketing effort.
“We really encourage people to experience the city how it is and to support the music and arts here in order to keep it going.”
"When the biggest music festival in St. Johns County drops this week, rest assured the goal is not to make more money for Hotel X or Beer Company Z."
ReplyDeleteWow! Lipstick on the pig denial in the first sentence!
Pig Tourism is on the defensive!
The message must be coming through that the local residents are fed up with these obnoxiously abusive drugfests tying up traffic, confiscating private property and crapping on the residents quality of life.
Hotel X, booze company Z , and the state alcohol and tobacco drug cartel are prime movers in promoting this drunken debacle. Its the self centered xtrevilist Mumford promotional crowd back with a revised baloneyspeak softer and more friendly sell job but its still the same old Pig Tourism...
http://fountainofbaloney.com/fbarticles/mumfordconfiscation.html