After a successful four-week inaugural run in June, Visit Hot Springs is already planning more Bridge Street LIVE! events in September.
Each Thursday in June, the Bridge Street Entertainment District hosted musical performances and vendors. Bill Solleder, director of marketing for Visit Hot Springs, told The Sentinel-Record that all four of the events were successful.
"We're tickled pink, we're so happy," Solleder said, adding that the local restaurants and bars located downtown "are very happy" too.
Solleder said these "four were an experiment." He said they were looking to see what worked and what didn't work. "Everyone just felt it just worked."
The Hot Springs Board of Directors voted to expand the entertainment district in 2019 but the global pandemic prevented events from being held there in 2020. The newly established entertainment district guidelines allowed patrons older than 21 to freely walk the district with beer, wine or spirits as long as those beverages were in a special Bridge Street LIVE! Entertainment District cup.
"Looking forward to coming back in September," Solleder said.
Each week in September will play host to an event, with Bridge Street LIVE! taking the final two. The first week in September will host The Big Pickle: The World's Greatest Pickleball Festival Sept. 4 and 5. The Big Pickle organizers have said the event will combine a pickleball event with the Hot Springs JazzFest and Hot Springs Blues Festival. There will be live music, food trucks and sidewalk cafes.
The second week of September will host the inaugural Hot Springs BikeFest, which Solleder said is taking the place of the former Hot Springs motorcycle rally.
Solleder noted the September events are not scheduled for Thursdays. "Each event will have a different street configuration," he said.
Attendance at the Bridge Street LIVE! events, Solleder said, was strong. Each of the four events averaged 1,500 attendees.
"Over four weeks, (we had) over 6,000 people in and out," he said.
These attendees, Solleder said, spent a lot of money at the events, with vendors reporting strong sales during the shows.
"One vendor selling jewelry and crystals was there all four weeks. (On the) second week (the vendor) was scheduled for a different festival," Solleder said, but did so well at the first Bridge Street LIVE! they canceled their plans and returned for the second event.
While they didn't do any surveys to find out where the attendees came from, Solleder said just from talking to them he could see that there were "bunches of people from out of town."
As for the concerts, Solleder said he is "proud to program a really diverse lineup." While he couldn't pick a favorite moment from the series, he did say some of his favorites were when the lead singer of Memphis Soul Review headed into the crowd to dance with the attendees, and he said the choreography of Funkytown was great to watch.
"Great moments all four weeks," Solleder said.
Solleder said the idea behind Bridge Street LIVE! was for people who come to Hot Springs for a weekend getaway. He said these people often arrive on Thursday night, and these shows were to give those tourists something fun to do and he feels they succeeded in doing just that.