It's one thing to break ground. It's another to actually make it.
Half the 40,000 square feet of parking lot space at Atlantic Station has been sodded and turned into a makeshift concert area, where acts including Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Atlanta's Shawn Mullins and Chrissie Hynde's new project, JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys, will perform Friday.
The point of this free "Rock for Roots" show, a team effort between 92.9 Dave FM and MXenergy, is to "celebrate the greenness of Atlanta," said Marjorie Kass, managing director of marketing for the energy company.
The creation of the event was influenced by national PARK(ing) Day, Friday's annual environmental campaign that originated in San Francisco in 2005 and urges the temporary transformation of urban open space.
Will Davis, director of marketing for Dave FM, said the idea of turning a parking lot into a music venue has percolated at the station for years, but the alignment of available space, the right partners and appropriately rootsy musical acts didn't occur until this year.
"As a station, we adopted the environment as a grass-roots marketing effort -- not for marketing's sake, but because our audience is 50 percent male and 50 percent female, and the environment is something that resonates with everyone," he said.
Wednesday, 15 members of the Dave FM crew -- sales, programming and promotions staff -- spent the day spreading 20,000 square feet of sod donated by the Patten Seed Co.
In keeping with the environmental spirit, the used sod will be given away to any takers from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Atlantic Station site.
"We didn't want to be wasteful for the sake of a media stunt," Davis said.
But while the message of Friday's event is how easy it is being green -- in addition to the concert stage, 10 tents featuring nonprofits such as Park Pride Atlanta and Trees Atlanta will be spread throughout the area -- the musical component is hardly secondary.
About 5,000 people are expected to attend the inaugural show, which Davis hopes will turn into an annual occurrence.
"Atlanta has lacked a free music event for a long time," he said. "This will pull people together, and there hasn't been anything like that for the city to rally around. These are baby steps, but we'll grow from here."
Concert preview
"Rock for Roots" with Shawn Mullins, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Chrissie Hynde's new project, JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys, Alpha Rev, and Stevie Monce.
4 p.m. Friday. Free. Atlantic Station, 171 17th St. N.W., Atlanta. (404) 876-2616, www.atlanticstation.com .
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