Wednesday, July 10, 2002
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Wednesday, July 10, 2002 |
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F'ville amphitheater sets 1st concert By MICHAEL BOYLAN
Fayetteville is getting into the amphitheater game. The soon to be completed Villages Amphitheater and the first concert for the venue were announced at a press conference at Fayetteville City Hall on Monday. The Villages, located next to Fayette County High School, is a subdivision currently in development. Plans for an amphitheater started eight years ago as an idea being tossed around by Main Street Board Chairman Robert Sprayberry and Ron Simpson of RCS Productions, which produces the concerts for Main Street Fayetteville. "When we first looked at that spot of land it was just a cow pasture but we thought about how great it would be to put on concerts there," said Sprayberry. "A lot of people have helped make this project come about." The concert that will mark the grand opening of the Villages Amphitheater will feature Dennis Edwards and the Temptation Review Sept. 28. There will be a concert series at the amphitheater next year but Fayetteville Downtown Development Authority Chairman Al Hovey-King said that it will not be as extensive as the summer concert series at the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater in Peachtree City. The Villages Amphitheater will be used more for community events including theatrical productions and school functions for Fayette County High School and several middle schools. The amphitheater will give concert-goers the choice of tiered seating, which will seat around 1,100 people, or lawn seating as well as a small section of tables near the stage. Tickets in the tiered section are $25 in advance or $30 at the gate, while tickets in the lawn area are $20 in advance or $25 at the gate. The limited number of reserved tables of eight will be available for $250. Tickets for Dennis Edwards and The Temptation Review will go on sale at July Jam this weekend. They will be available at any Heritage Bank location as well as City Hall beginning the following weekend. Tickets can only be paid for using cash or check, though credit cards will be accepted starting next year. Though the concessionaire has yet to be determined a full concession area will be available. Concertgoers will also be able to bring in their own picnic baskets and coolers. Beer and wine will be permitted to be brought in and will also be available for purchase. No open containers or smoking will be allowed in the parking lot, which will be the parking lot of Fayette County High School. This will be strictly enforced. The Villages Amphitheater will be an entertainment facility with the feel of Main Street. It will be a place where the community can come together and enjoy a variety of events throughout the year. "I am particularly proud that the city has invested in a cultural and musical venue that will be multifunctional, and used by our community as well as for our own concerts and productions," remarked Mayor Ken Steele. Hawkins an undeservedly obscure historical figure When Eddie Lanham placed a marble headstone on the gravesite of Col. Benjamin Hawkins, he was honoring possibly one of the most historically ignored personalities in the history of the southeast region. Hawkins spent most of a 20-year tenure on the Flint River in Georgia's Indian Territory in an impossible situation, trying to balance the rights of the Creek Indians with the Manifest Destiny attitudes espoused by Andrew Jackson, American frontiersmen and settlers who believed it their right to push west and acquire the Indian land. A native of North Carolina, Hawkins served as George Washington's French interpreter during the American Revolution and in 1796 was appointed by Washington as "Principal Agent for Indian Affairs South of the Ohio River." Hawkins selected an 8,000-acre site on the Flint River, just below the Fall Line, for his Indian Agency, a 25-structure compound where he attempted to teach the Indians the ways of the white man's culture in order for them to integrate and survive in the white man's world. He taught them to use modern tools, technologies and agriculture. Hawkins knew the writing was on the wall for the American Indian and he hoped to convince the Creeks to shift from an economy of commercial hunting to one that required less land because they would no longer be able to roam the vast region that had been the Creek Nation. By the time Hawkins died in 1816, what he had feared the total eradication of the Creek Indians from the Flint River Corridor was fast becoming reality. Twenty years later, Andrew Jackson, Hawkins's main antagonist, became president and ordered the removal of all Indians from the southeast region in what would come to be known as the Trail of Tears. Hawkins's grave, where Lanham placed the marble headstone, is located on the site of the Indian Agency on the east side of the Flint River. A historical marker sits about .25 miles east of the Ga. Highway 128 bridge at Benjamin Hawkins Road, which leads to the gravesite. A monument to Hawkins is located six miles east on the square in Roberta.
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