No more sound of music on Marietta square
It was a tradition that endured for at least a decade: performers would strum and sing on the Marietta square as spectators flooded in with lunches purchased from nearby restaurants.
At least, that was the way the Brown Bag Lunch Concert was supposed to work.
But few of the city and county employees headquartered just blocks away ever showed up with store-bought fare. In their place came moms toting dancing toddlers, said Mike Gabler, a city parks official.
"It rapidly turned into a moms' day out type of thing," he said.
Businesses complained about the parking spaces lost to the concert.
And the city finally relented to their appeals: after this month, Marietta will cancel the series, which has run at noon on Thursdays in May and September as long as Gabler can remember.
"The September concerts are canceled at this point," said Gabler, the recreation services manager for the Marietta Parks, Recreation and Facilities Department. And it's a "good assumption" that May will be canceled, as well, he said.
The concerts, which cost about $200 apiece, were not originally intended as merely an economic stimulant. They also were meant to provide cultural enrichment to the public, Gabler said.
Stores and restaurants initially embraced the idea, thinking it would boost their bottom line. But it didn't turn out that way.
Gabler doesn't know why the programs fizzled with grownups. But it was definitely popular with the younger crowd.
"It was always fun to see the kids try to dance for the first time," he said.
About the Author
Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.
