EVENT PREVIEW
Parklife
2 p.m. Sept. 7. “Central park” area of Atlantic Station, 1380 Atlantic Drive N.W., Atlanta. Tickets are on sale now for $25 and then $30 day of show. A $150 VIP ticket is also available (private bathrooms, food and a preferred viewing area will be included).
To purchase tickets, visit: www.freshtix.com/events/parklife-atl-sep7 or www.parklifefest.com.
There’s a new name to add to the Atlanta music festival landscape: Parklife.
The upstart event, co-promoted by Eddie’s Attic and Bowe Inc., will take place in the “central park” area of Atlantic Station starting at 2 p.m. Sept. 7.
Topping the lineup is emerging British singer-guitarist Jake Bugg, along with the Lone Bellow, the Wild Feathers, LP, the Weeks and Shadowboxers.
Andrew Hingley, the talent buyer at Eddie’s Attic, has been working closely with regional concert promoter Bowe O’Brien to establish the event and named it after a mutually favored 1994 Blur album.
“There are a couple of other Parklife festivals — in Australia and the U.K. — but it’s really named that for us because Bowe and I are such big fans of the Blur record,” Hingley said.
About 1,200 tickets had been sold at midweek leading up to the show, but the goal is to attract about 2,000 people to the space at Atlantic Station (think Christmas tree area), which Hingley thinks is possible given the strong lineup and an affordable ticket price.
“I’m hoping it’s like going to see a movie, with that type of discretionary money,” he said. “Even if people are going to Music Midtown (later in September), they’ll still come to this. It’s not like forking out $100 for two festivals.”
Though Hingley is aware of the crowded September landscape (One Musicfest, Music Midtown, three Outkast shows, TomorrowWorld), the timing had to coincide with the routing of some of the acts. Nashville's Live on the Green event, also with Bugg and the Lone Bellow, plays the night before.
Hingley is a stickler for details, from the order of the lineup to the way the stage is set up, but he’s aware that some things are out of his control — namely, the weather.
“In all honesty, with what I’ve seen with Shaky Knees (Festival, an Atlanta music festival that takes place in May), with the monsoon they had two years ago, if the bands play and they have a good time, that energy will just transfer no matter what,” Hingley said.
While this inaugural Parklife is a bit of a test, Hingley expects to move it to an area of Piedmont Park next year and grow incrementally.
“It’s my first festival,” Hingley said, adding with a laugh, “but at least I’m putting on a show that I want to go to!”
About the Author
