Oakhurst Arts & Music Festival Cancelled For 2015 Due to Streetscape Construction
Decatur Metro | July 14, 2015 | 2:20 pm
Angie Macon of the Decatur Arts Alliances writes in…
Due to the completion date of the Harmony Park/ Oakhurst Streetscape, the Oakhurst Festival will not be held on October 10th.
The Decatur Arts Alliance would like to use this brief hiatus to evaluate and gather community input for upcoming art events in the Oakhurst neighborhood in 2016.
If you have ideas for community art events that would reflect the incredible Oakhurst neighborhood, please email [email protected]
Thank you for your support of the arts in Decatur!
Photo courtesy of the Oakhurst Arts & Music Festival website
Work on the Harmony part streetscape project began in January 2015. It won’t be done by October of 2015? That really seems like a very long time to just pave over greenspace and alter some curbs and sidewalks.
It’s been more like 5 months if you don’t include all the miserable days of rain this winter and spring! Fingers crossed that they will also cancel the BBQ and Blues Fest , which is even more of a national disgrace than Scott Walker.
Why is the Fest a national disgrace?
Thanks Jeremy. Interesting comment. Not sure if the shortcomings of the Decatur BBQ Fest rise to the level of a national disgrace but who knows! I’ll contact my good friend and local BBQ kingpin Bob Herdon to eval your criticism. As to your last comment, I would argue that a conservative state governor who survived three or four elections in a liberal northern state does not rise to the level of a national disgrace. Those who sought to smear his character and policies but failed may be crying a river but the majority of voters in Wisconsin had a different view. There is another politician however, one who can truely be called a national disgrace, that fits the bill. He is planning to give the world’s leading supporter of terrorism a nuclear bomb. He is planning to release thousands of convicted drug lords to again prey on their communities. He has and will continue to turn his back on our most loyal allies and embrace the enemies of the U.S. And there are the lies. My God, how on earth did this happen!
But this is not Scott Walker.
Chris,
I’m curious about your view on two things. First, why the IAEA and others that are familiar with what might be necessary to set up an effective monitoring regime are behind this deal? Do you assume that you and other unflagging critics of this administration know better ways of achieving non-proliferation? Second, and relatedly, what is the alternative to monitoring? It seems the general consensus is that other countries are unwilling to keep sanctions in place forever, and many what I would consider to be knowledgeable folks – like Bob Gates – think the idea of war with Iran would be folly. So, absent this deal, what then? What’s to keep them from rushing to achieve nuclear status much as the North Koreans did after the Bish administration elected not to engage?
Frankly. I’m more concerned about the “thousands of convicted drug lords” that are going to be preying on Decatur.
I would argue that a liberal state senator and president who survived two national elections in a conservative country does not rise to the level of a national disgrace. Those who sought to smear his character and policies may be crying a river but the majority of voters in the United States of America had a different view.
+1. Exactly.
We’ll let time tell on that — It’s not hard to win elections when you’ve got the press in your pocket and you use the IRS and other federal agencies to illegally squash dissent. This stuff can’t be hidden forever.
Time will be the judge, not the last election.
One thing I’m confident of is that time will not be kind to the W administration, as that unmitigated foreign policy disaster will haunt us for a long time. By comparison, Obama will be seen as at least an improvement, though that’s an admittedly low bar. Barring some disaster between now and 2017, Obama is going to go out in a much better position than Bush did in 2009. It’s likely that the only thing Bush will be credited for in the future is going along with Paulson and Bernanke; a decision which, in my opinion, probably contained what could have been a much worse crisis.
They were/are both awful. This comparison stuff is getting old. “Yeah, well what about your guy?!!”
It may be getting old, but the most significant part of the narrative of Obama’s legacy, beyond him being the first African-American president, will be that he inherited a mess from his predecessor. That is why the comparison thing is so apt. And it’s particularly bad for W, since his predecessor left things in pretty decent shape.
Funny, but as you say that, Bush’s esteem is already rising. He cracked an egg for sure, but at least was trying to clean it up. Obama is simply washing his hands and walking out of the kitchen. Breakfast be damned, I’ve got adoring fans to greet on twitter!
Not rising in my eyes. Worse, if anything. Let’s see how much W’s legacy helps his brother on the campaign trail. It will be a hindrance, I believe
And since we’re on this topic, I’m gonna go out on a limb and make a kind of crazy 2016 prediction. Bush (or Walker) vs. Clinton vs. a wealthy independent candidate (and I think we all know who). Ready for 1992 redux?
(and before anyone dismisses Trump as a candidate, either for the nomination or as an independent, go look at how his approval rating among Republicans has jumped since his anti-immigration comments)
Hey brianc – that’s what the mainstream media outlets would have us believe. But take a listen to this recent story from NPR’s On The Media program. It nicely debunks the notion that Trump is somehow surging in the polls.
http://www.onthemedia.org/story/numbers-dont-lieexcept-when-they-do/
Nice.
Give ’em hell Chris! I love Scott Walker. (And this Iran deal will ultimately seal the history books on how this administration failed even its low foreign policy goals.)
Boy, I will be all over the place on these topics. I’ll stick to just one today. Chris, don’t you think that sentencing someone to 25 years in prison on ONE count of cocaine possession with intent to distribute may be just a weeeee bit excessive?
+1 Chris… Good to know we our not entirely surrounded by bleeding heart liberals in this city.
Bleeding heart liberals are mostly a thing of the past. What we have now are progressives, and they are anything but liberal in the traditional sense.
I am late to the game, but if you don’t want to be surrounded by “liberals”, then why on earth would you move to the most liberal part of the state?
Ok, I may have been overstating it 🙂 I went last year and the music was mediocre and played at obnoxious levels and there was a horrible echo due to the staging (literally) of the event. The stage and speakers were directly facing a large brick wall, with an asphault parking lot in between. Lots of echo and distortion. Also, I guess I just expect more from a festival that is specializing in BBQ and the Blues/Bluegrass. In reality it is more like, “here is some BBQ that you can get anywhere and people playing music in the style known as the Blues.” It would be like the Decatur Beer Festival organizers just hiring the guys at Ale Yeah to put some of their beers in a large cooler and charging for admission. One last thing – if it were free, that would be different. This was $10 per person, and that only gets you into the “park” (okay, parking lot) where you are then allowed to purchase beer (you can’t bring in coolers).
Up until last year, I’ve always really enjoyed this festival, and I haven’t minded the entry fee. I think the money goes to good causes in our community. I do wish they could find a different spot for it, though. I will not be spending $10 to sit in a Family Dollar parking lot in August again. If it must be held there, perhaps they could change the time to October or April.
Jeremy we are sorry you feel that way about the festival. There is a lot of hard work that goes into making this a great event and we are excited to celebrate the 15th year of it on Saturday, August 15th. As mentioned the main goal of the festival has always been to raise funds for Decatur charities through our grant program. As you can expect staging an event like this has hard costs (bands, staging, city services etc..) therefore bringing coolers in would negate our beer sales revenue. As with any event we are always striving to make the experience better, therefore we are investing in additional water fans, looking at shade structure options for this year and evaluating expanding the astro turf purchase we made last year. Although it seems to late to change your opinion we simply wanted to share some general information on the festival for the group.
Regarding the streetscape project initially we were hopeful the city would start this last fall so as to be done by our festival date as well as the Art Festival, but delays will prevent that. Therefore we will not have use of Harmony Park this year.
I should have figured the money was going to charity, my mistake! Just being grumpy and a bit snobby yesterday, I guess. Not as grumpy as some… but still. I do love living somewhere where there are so many festivals you can actually complain about there being too many, and whine about the ones you care less for than others. Fox Brothers BBQ is pretty good, I just wish there were a few more competing vendors out there. Maybe some Hot Ham and Rolls – now that’s EXCITING! And I understand that with musical acts you get what you pay for. Truthfully, I hope I didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings with my comments, it’s actually a pretty well run festival that most cities would kill to get 🙂 And at $10 a pop it may not be a great deal, but it’s the best deal we could have reasonably hoped for under the circumstances.
Jeez, Jeremy, NOW look what you’ve started! A Decatur festival pile-on, and a political debate. Shame. Go to your room and we’ll discuss this when your father gets home.
Wow. The Tour of Homes. The Old Home Expo. The Beach Party. Now this. What’s next? Santa may need to look at his calendar pretty carefully.
I still miss the St. Patrick’s Day parade. It was small and low-tech but homey.
Revive it.
But now there’s the Halloween parade and the Lantern parade, so we’ve got that going for us.
I think we’re witnessing a pretty normal transition as the champions of our many long time events Are starting to retire, pull back, etc. Fresh blood brings new ideas. It’s all good.
Also, the Madison Avenue Soapbox Derby and the Mead Road Mardi Gras parade have that homey feel and they’re both fairly new.
All good for some, but not for all. Some events should never die, the Beach Party being one.
Of course true, but there is no event (or circumstance) that’s all good for all. So I try to see the good in the good that’s being done. Otherwise, I’m left with bad and that’s no good for anyone.
Add to that The Solarium Patio Party changed from $15 of fun in June to $35 small plates and whiskey in late August.
Maintain the memories and restore if you can because all the newcomers have no idea what this small town WAS all about just a short time ago. And I bet they’d like it.
Oaky – I hear you, but once we started the momentum, this kind of change was inevitable and irrevocable. There’s no going back…
What’s this momentum thing that you are referring to? Not being snarky, just curious.
Being careful how I phrase this… but 20+ years ago when more good, energetic, civic minded people (and I’d like to claim at least part of that description) started renovating houses, revitalizing the commercial district, hosting events, engaging with the community, and turning around the perception of the area from “unsafe’ to “awesome”, it was inevitable that new money and different people would be attracted.
They’re also mostly good, energetic and civic minded people, but they have very different expectations and desires than those who came before. I was fine living next to section 8 housing because I paid comparatively little for my house. If I paid $700k- $1M+ I’d likely also feel differently about the rest of the neighborhood. Whereas I expected a little petty crime, street garbage and broken couches in front yards, I think the new folks have different standards and expectations. That’s not to judge, it’s just different.
It’s not just Oakhurst, it’s every revitalization everywhere.
I think what you are trying to say is that Oakhurst used to be an eclectic, diverse funky little neighborhood. And now it is getting overrun by the more fancy snooty crowd. You’re welcome.
Succinct, if perhaps not as PC. 😉
And add that this is the natural order of things. I’ve (we’ve all) seen it play out in several cities and many neighborhoods. It’s not bad or good, it just is.
On this we agree, G Buck. I moved here somewhere in the middle of the time frame you refer to, but I don’t have the expectation that this place should be like Alpharetta because it costs a lot to live here.
As another 20+ year resident, I hear you. Back in the day, hearing hammers and saws was a sign of progress. Nowadays, these sounds mean another old house is being replaced with a McCraftsman.
Up until a few years ago, I thought we’d live here until I was carried out in a pine box. When the youngest graduates from DHS in 8 years, I suspect we will cash in and move on to greener pastures.
Ditto.
Man, how come you don’t get censored when you use the term McCraftsman? I haven’t been able to use the term for at least a year.
I think it’s the first time I’ve used it here. Maybe you’re only moderated if you use it more than once!
Add to that the new posh Kitchen Garden Dinner Party fundraiser at $125/person. Apparently, the City decided there was no need to survey us residents on this use of the cemetery. Or to contribute any of the funds raised to anything cemetery related– for example, covering the Memorial Day tribute expenses. (Chris Billingsley not only has to raise the money for the flags and carnations placed on the graves, but has to find volunteers, and then feels obliged to thank the City for letting him to do it.)
Whole lotta cranky goin on here…is it the heat?
Actually it’s probably the fault of air-conditioning. If we all surfed the internet out in the summer sun we’d all likely to be too hot to argue, even about relevant topics!
Also, the topic kind of invites negativity–cancellation of a festival. We’d be even crankier if we were posting similar comments under a thread titled “Exciting, fun, free new festival to hit Decatur!”