In the 1990s, many southeastern cities began staging large outdoor music festivals in their downtown areas. Most were successful at first, but eventually fell victim to logistical and economic woes.
Atlanta’s Music Midtown went on a six-year hiatus before returning with a scaled down version in Piedmont Park in 2011; Birmingham’s City Stages shut down for good in 2009; but Mobile’s Bayfest is still going strong and has grown to become Alabama’s largest annual music festival.
Spread out over 20 city blocks of downtown Mobile, Bayfest features an array of acts of varying genres performing on multiple stages. At last year’s festival, fans could catch country star Blake Shelton on one stage, then walk down the street to take in a Ludacris concert on another, along with a slew a regional and local acts on smaller stages in between.
Along with eight different stages for music — including one dedicated to gospel and another to jazz — there will also be a large family and children’s area open during the afternoons of the festival with interactive exhibits, games, contests and hands-on arts and crafts projects. Headliners for the 2012 Bayfest range from such classic hit makers as Al Green, Journey and Willie Nelson, to more modern acts like Luke Bryan, Pretty Lights and Grace Potter & The Nocturnals.
Organizers expect a crowd of more than 200,000 people at this year’s event, which takes place the first weekend in October. By comparison, the first Bayfest in 1995 had a crowd of 50,000. Bayfest’s success parallels the slow but steady resurgence of downtown itself. Once a vibrant port town — it’s official nickname is “The Port City” — downtown Mobile experienced a decades-long decline that began with the explosion of suburbia in the mid-20th century, especially when a large shopping mall was built in its suburbs in the late 1950s. Mobile native Winston Groom, author of the novel “Forrest Gump,” wrote about his hometown in the August issue of Southern Living, saying that “within a few years the mall had sucked all the businesses out of downtown, and Mobile was left withering on the vine.”
Filled with historic buildings whose architecture resembles New Orleans with its wrought iron balconies and mix of styles, Mobile has always had a similar look and feel to the Big Easy. It also has a similar history. The flags of five countries have flown over the city since 1702 and it’s where Mardi Gras was first celebrated in the New World. Surrounding areas such as Dauphin Island and Point Clear, and attractions like Battleship Memorial Park and Bellingrath Gardens have always drawn visitors, but downtown was overlooked for years — except during Mardi Gras. It was a place you drove through and briefly gawked at on your way to somewhere else.
Now rediscovered and still being revitalized, today downtown Mobile is a pastiche of old and new, with sleek modern skyscrapers dominating a skyline rising over historic gas lamp districts where the shutters have swung back open as businesses have returned. Strolling Dauphin, Royal and St. Francis streets you’ll find an array of shops, eateries, brew pubs, historic hotels, theaters, dive bars oozing with character and nightclubs emanating music from their doorways, all accented by the faint smell of salty sea air wafting in from the port and the bay. As Groom states in his Southern Living essay, “downtown Mobile is rising phoenix-like from the ashes of 30 years of neglect.” And Bienville Square, the tree-filled park at its heart that became a haven for the dispossessed during its years of neglect, now hums with vibrancy again, whether there’s a music festival going on or not.
If you go
Bayfest, Oct. 5-7. Weekend passes $45. Children 12 and under free with a paid adult. www.bayfest.com.
Mobile is a five-hour-and-20-minute drive from Atlanta on I-85 south and I-65 south.
Stay
The Battle House. Named after founder James Battle, this historic hotel is a AAA Four Diamond Hotel operated by Marriott as a Renaissance property. It underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation in the early 2000s, a major part of downtown’s revitalization, and is listed as one of the Historic Hotels of America by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Rates start at $159. 26 N. Royal St., Mobile. 251-338-2000, www.marriott.com.
Fort Conde Inn. Located in a pocket neighborhood adjacent to downtown where gas lamps still illuminate the streets, this B&B is housed in Mobile’s second oldest home, recently renovated for the modern traveler but retaining an antebellum-era elegance. Rates start at $139. 165 St. Emanuel St., Mobile. 251-405-5040, www.fortcondeinn.com.
Eat
Wintzell’s Oyster House. Landmark seafood restaurant downtown that has been in business since 1938. It’s now an Alabama chain, but this is the original location, popular with locals as well as tourists. Full seafood dinners start at $11.99. 605 Dauphin St., Mobile. 251-432-4605, wintzellsoysterhouse.com.
Callaghan’s Irish Social Club. Neighborhood pub in the historic Oakleigh Garden District near downtown that is worth seeking out for their award-winning burgers, beer selection and live music offerings. Under $10; cover charge when there’s live music except at sidewalk tables. 916 Charleston St., Mobile. 251-433-9374, www.callaghansirishsocialclub.com.
Visitor info
Mobile Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau. 1-800-566-2453, www.mobile.org.
Welcome Center at Fort Conde. 150 S. Royal St., Mobile. 251-208-7989.
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