The Bowling Green Town Council spent much of its July 2 meeting on a postmortem of the first John Cephus Piedmont Blues Festival, which was held June 13.
Although there was a long list of areas that could be improved upon, the Council’s consensus was that the event should not only become a fixture, but that it should play a prominent role in the town’s new website.
“We’ve done a lot of things in the past with locals coming out for them. I’ve heard nothing but great things about this,” said Mayor David Storke. “It will be a shame if we don’t capitalize on being the home of the Piedmont Blues.”
Storke’s comments came after a presentation by Jo-Elsa Jordan, the Bowling Green’s events coordinator.
“We need to recognize the positive [exposure] in the media,” Jordan said, adding that the event made the front page of the Flair Section in the “Richmond Times-Dispatch” and was written up in a national blues magazine.
“This is what we are trying to do,” Jordan said. “It was a community feel-good event that drew people from as far away as Colorado and Ontario, Canada. Overall, it was a very positive event. What we need to do now is maximize this opportunity, to rebuild our website with Bowling Green as the home of the Piedmont Blues.
“It was blazing hot that day. For the first year we got a good turnout,” Jordan said. “We learned a lot in our first year. We need to provide more shady areas and improve the festival parking and signage. We need recycling bins. People said they wanted to recycle.”
Although the event came in under budget, the revenue did not offset expenditures.
Several councilmen commented on this.
“I’d like to tighten the budget,” said Vice Mayor Glenn MacDearmon, who questioned the $3,000 spent on lodging for the musicians.
“They performed for $200,” noted Jordan, saying that the lodging was the perk that got these professional musicians to Bowling Green.
“Things we did make money on were beer sales, T-shirts and CD sales,” Jordan said.
Storke suggested charging a reasonable admission fee at some point in the future.
Jordan noted that her next task is revamping the outdated town website, which has an outdated Town Council photo on it, among other flaws.
The annual Bowling Green Harvest Festival is also approaching quickly, she said. “I’d like to add a good haunted house to that event.”
The council also discussed the casting call held for the feature film “Loving” June 27 at Town Hall.
“It was an insane day; 1,317 people came through the doors, which was just under the number at a casting call in downtown Richmond,” Jordan said.
“This was a one-time thing. We can’t ask Hollywood to make another film here, but the casting director mentioned more than once that the hospitality was wonderful,” Jordan said. “Local restaurants had a big day.
“Bowling Green has gotten a lot of publicity in just a few weeks,” she added.
The only issue that came up about the casting call was the fact the town allowed the use of Town Hall without charging a fee.
When questioned about this, Storke replied, “It came up on short notice, it was the middle of the week, and our restaurants made money on the casting call.”
In other action, the Town Council approved the nomination of Valarie Coyle to the Bowling Green Planning Commission.
“All three candidates were great,” noted Storke, saying it was a difficult decision to make.
John Mahoney, the lone candidate for Caroline County Commonwealth’s Attorney in November, attended the town meeting and introduced himself to council and staff.
He said he had two appointments to look at houses in Bowling Green the next day and looked forward to becoming part of the community.
Loading ...