By By Kerry Whipple Bean – publisher
Tickets are on sale now for the first Brewton Songwriters Festival, to be held Saturday, Feb. 24, at Burnt Corn Creek Park.
Proceeds from the event will benefit proposed renovations to the park, including a new bandstand and outdoor movie theater. The festival begins at 11 a.m.
Tickets are available at NDI's Cracked Pot, JusDo, Book &Bean and the chamber of commerce office in Brewton. Tickets for the all-day event are $20 for adults; $10 for seniors 55 and older and for students age 5 to 18; and $50 for families (immediate only). Children ages 4 and under will be admitted free.
Performers at the festival will include Hank Adam Locklin Jr., Rusty Golden, Grayson Capps &the Stumpknockers, Jerry Salley, Larry Cordle, Carl Jackson, Bobby Pinson, Jayron Weaver and Brian Lisenby.
The festival will also feature local performers who tried out at auditions last month. Those performers include: Buddy Bell, Josh Pugh, Tamrah Aeryn and Michael Gardner, all of whom sang original songs at the audition, and Victoria Creamer, Carolyn Caraway, Ronnie Johnson, Carolyn Grice, Kerry McCall, Brandon Patterson, Shane Harrell and Jonathan McElwee. The local performers who sang original songs will have slightly longer sets because the festival is for songwriters, organizers said at the auditions.
Service organizations will be serving food at the festival, splitting the proceeds with the city.
The funds raised will help with improvements to Burnt Corn Creek Park. Plans call for a new gazebo and stage, with a pull-down film screen that will allow &#8220movies on the lawn”; a fountain splashpad for children; benches and landscaping; and other improvements.
The Quality of Life Committee, an outgrowth of the city's participation in the Alabama Communities of Excellence program, is sponsoring the Songwriters Festival and the park improvements.
The committee will also be encouraging corporate sponsorship of the park improvements.
At different levels of sponsorship, companies and individuals can receive free tickets to the Songwriters Festival as well as plaque acknowledgements when the park improvements are complete.