CityView Magazine

CityViewNC.com | 51 I t's a Friday night in mid-July and you're standing on Hay Street. Suddenly you hear…Try to understand. Try try try to understand. I'm a Magic Man. Is it 1975? No, it's 2014. Is it a band playing for the Dog- wood Festival? Keep in mind, it's not April… it's July. It's summer in the All-America City and that's prime time for the Dogwood Festival's free concert series, Fayetteville Aer 5. e popular affair started 15 years ago at the now de- funct Fayetteville Museum of Art on their beautiful lawn and lake (it's presently home to the lovely event venue, Vizcaya Villa). It was held on the third ursday of every summer month. In 2008, the concert moved to the larger space of Festival Park. Fayetteville Aer 5 is an exclusive R.A. Jeffrerys Distributing Company event that they give all proceeds to a non-profit group because they cannot sell alcohol to benefit themselves. In 2010, the Fayetteville Dogwood Festi- val took the event over and there are no signs of slowing their success down. "We have definitely revamped the series," said Dogwood Festival execu- tive director Carrie King. "We have changed the genres of music and moved it from ursday to Friday night." Moving the date to Fri- day has resulted in the average crowd going from 2,000 at- tendees to a whopping 5,000 to 8,000. TGIF perhaps? ough the large crowd may bring to mind the April Dogwood Festival event, everything is scaled back. e only vendors allowed are top-notch food vendors with typical concert fare and of course, R.A. Jeffries is slinging your fa- vorite libations. "It is strictly an R.A. Jeffreys event. e only sponsors we have are our media partners," King stressed. By MIrIaM Landru Fayetteville After An insiders look at the concert series 5 When Fayetteville Aer 5 began, the focus was on sea- son-appropriate Carolina Beach Music. In 2009, the quin- tessential 90s band Better than Ezra which spawned hits like "Desperately Wanting" and "At the Stars" headlined the series at the Museum of Art, but attendance was not as on point as expected. King recalled, "I went to the event and I was shocked there were not more people there!" She added, "Bringing in the Dogwood Festival has brought a more concrete fan base." In 2010 and 2011, primarily beach bands played the se- ries. But last year, Kind decided to take the risk of having a major headliner. "Just one more time the committee agreed to try it," said King. Country crooner James Otto, whose song "Just Got Started Lovin' You" was the Billboard Number One Country Single of 2008, hit the Festival Park stage in May 2013 to great success. "It was huge. I mean it was HUGE!" ex- claimed King is year, the concerts kicked off on May 16 with Nashville recording art- ist Josh ompson of "Cold Beer with your Name on It" fame. Local act e Erik Smallwood Duo, with its name- sake on guitar and Neil Donnell Ray on percussion, opened for the Music City big timer. "Working with Carrie King and Joe Coker over at Festival Park is always so easy and fun. ey make us feel special even though we are just a regional act." On preceding ompson, Smallwood said, "We had a chance to meet him and his band. ey were pretty busy, so we didn't get to chat too long, but they were very nice guys and super talented. It really made me feel at home when I pulled up backstage and heard "Simple Man" being played by his band for sound check." FEaTurE Erik Smallwood

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