And...

Nothing serious to write about today, just a bit of reminiscing.

Years ago, certain estimable — and formidable — ladies here in Newnan, GA, decided that our Municipal Auditorium could do with a bit of restoration. It was a Works Project Administration (WPA) building and is a respectable bit of late Art Deco architecture.

Years before, of course, my Newnan Community Theatre Company inhabited it as our home; our agreement with the city was that we would keep the place clean and operational. (The city itself was doing no such thing.) But then the city fathers decided we were “using it too much” and voted to start charging us market rates. even though at the time I think we were up to only four shows a year.

So after we moved out in the mid-80s, the place was basically unattended for a bit and needed the aforesaid restoration. (To be fair, it would have needed restoration anyway; there is not a lot we could do about the seating or the actual building.)

The estimable ladies decided the eftest way to raise the funding was to persuade Charles Wadsworth to come do a concert every year. Charles Wadsworth was born and raised in Newnan, right next to this very auditorium as it happens. A local patron, noticing his talent, paid for his continuing education, and he went on to found the Lincoln Center Chamber Society, to help run the Spoleto Festival and the Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston, and a ton more.

Charles was generous in pulling together these concerts for many years until his health began to fail, and so we renamed the auditorium in his honor. As he said at the concert that year, “Alan Jackson may have a stretch of highway named after him [I-85], but I have a performance hall.”

All of this is background. A few years into the concert series, the estimable ladies thought it would be glorious if Charles would establish and promote a music festival in Newnan. This in itself was not a bad idea; we had plenty of performance venues around town. But at the time, our hospitality industry was severely hampered: Newnan/Coweta County was completely dry. As Charles bluntly put it, no one was going to come spend money to stay in Newnan if they couldn’t have a glass of wine with dinner.

Now, of course, we’ve had wine and cocktails for many years, and we recently even repealed Prohibition — maybe we could reconsider the idea?

At any rate, at the time, I thought that we should name the event the Newnan &… Festival: Newnan & Opera, Newnan & Jazz, Newnan & EDM, you get the point. It would give us absolute freedom in programming, plus is a marketer’s dream.

Even more, it is a designer’s dream. The ampersand? I don’t know a typographer who wouldn’t swoon at the thought of the opportunities. I even have a whole font of ampersands, called Coming Together!

Just look:

coming together font, lower case a–z, 1–0

coming together font, upper case a–z, 1–0

Swoon!

So, if there are any estimable — and formidable — ladies out there who are up for a major project like a music festival in Newnan, GA, only a lot smaller and easier than anything like that, give me a call. I may have something for you to sink your claws into. (Ampersands will not be involved.)