With a little help from Bobby Brown, south Fulton's Wolf Creek Amphitheater finally lived up to its promise this weekend, offering a ray of hope to countywide taxpayers who've poured millions of dollars into the outdoor concert venue.
Brown, with the reunited 1980s R&B boy band New Edition, performed a Friday show that sold more than 5,300 tickets — just short of a sell-out. Saturday’s concert, with Erykah Badu, sold more than 3,000 tickets.
"They need more stuff like this on the Southside," said Jonesboro resident Renard Jones, who paid $55 for a lawn seat. "If the artist is hot, people will drive here, because I saw some Gwinnett tags here."
But Funk Fest -- one of just two events scheduled for all of 2012 -- revealed a serious parking problem at Wolf Creek, one so bad that some concertgoers threatened to never come back. The county acknowledged the shortcoming and began rectifying it Saturday.
It was a critical weekend for Wolf Creek, having its first major, for-profit event with sizable attendance. Since 2008, taxpayers have spent nearly $7 million to build, equip and operate the facility, and promoters considering further bookings watched closely to see how it handled everything from lighting and sound to concessions sales and parking.
Funk Fest saw the amphitheater become a south Fulton version of Chastain Park, as envisioned by its backers. Friday night, all but the fringes of the lawn area were covered with camping chairs, blankets and bouncing fans.
Most of the crowd was Gen X'ers who came to revisit their 1980s youth. The biggest turnoff, though, was parking.
Traffic was so clogged coming in on Friday, cars took 30 minutes to an hour to trudge along one lane from Camp Creek Parkway to fields off Merk Road. Overwhelmed, the county and contractor Lanier Parking steered them to overflow lots, making music fans all the more peeved about a $20 parking fee.
"The worst thing is, you pay $20, and us women have to walk across, like, three football fields," said Vj Fairley of Stone Mountain, who wore sandals. "I'm in shape, but not in these shoes and these clothes."
The county and Lanier decided to lower the fee to $10 on Saturday. They also doubled the parking staff and had a shuttle on standby in case overflow lots opened again, Arts and Culture Acting Director Ife Williams said. With lesser attendance and no workday traffic, parking went much smoother the second day.
Part of the problem, Commissioner Bill Edwards said, was so many drivers were from outside south Fulton and didn't realize there was another way in through Enon Road. Next time, both Merk and Enon roads should have both lanes routed one way, he said.
"We heard everything loud and clear," Edwards said. "It's nothing that can't be fixed."
Also watching closely were north Fulton leaders, who question the use of countywide general fund dollars for a venue geared to the Southside. Commissioner Liz Hausmann said in an email that the county shouldn’t be in the entertainment business and should consider outsourcing Wolf Creek’s management to a private company.
The Fulton venue entered a crowded concert market last year during tough economic times.
To break even on what the commission allocated this year to stage and market shows and hire a coordinator, Wolf Creek needs to earn $353,000. Though final numbers won't be known for several weeks, Funk Fest is expected to raise about $35,000 to $40,000 toward that, according to Arts and Culture, which manages Wolf Creek.
Parking issues aside, concertgoers had rave reviews for the amphitheater itself. Gary Thomas, an unincorporated south Fulton resident who was among the baby boomers in the crowd, said he's been disappointed Wolf Creek hasn't offered more shows.
"I know now it's not the venue," he said. "I think it's more the booking. If they had more good entertainers, it wouldn't be a problem."
Funk Fest was booked by Charlotte-based Variety Entertainment, whose founder and president Leo Bennett said he's considering returning to Wolf Creek next year.
"Possibly, if some things change," he said, citing parking and the slow-moving lines at the gates. "They have some growing pains that have to take place in order to get to the next level."
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