Rough Draft Band Rocks Downtown Belmont

The Rough Draft band from Charlotte rocked downtown Belmont last night during the second installment of the 2008 Friday Night Live! series.

Disco hits of the late 70’s and early 80’s were mixed in with pop tune covers throughout both sets. Of course the obligatory, “Electric Slide” was played for the female (and the few male) dancers. Seems liked every band that comes to Belmont has to play “Electric Slide”. Ok, just kinda confirms for us the level of “sophistication” the bands have when they pander to crowds.

The interesting part of the Friday Night Live! is becoming the intermission between sets. The Downtown Belmont Merchants Association takes the opportunity to thank the sponsors of the event, make announcements, and let the evening’s sponsor do their song and dance.

Last night the sponsor was Neil Brock and Associates (Nationwide Insurance). Neil was able to get Nationwide to bring in their showcar from the newly sponsored under-card of NASCAR (formerly the Busch Series), now called the Nationwide Series. They also had a racing simulator on hand that was free. Neil did a good job, even handing out a lot of “freebies”.

Belmont is certainly getting spoiled by all the largess that is being lavished on the crowds at Friday Night Live! Our little crowd certainly enjoyed ourselves last night. The “expanded” beer garden now extends from the tracks to the Day Spa and occasionally pushes onto the state road commonly known as Main Street (gasp).

The dude from the hardwood flooring store with the annoyingly high pitched voice needs to find someone else to lead the announcements. While his statements are needed - he just is not the person needing to make them. Certainly someone with a better microphone voice can be found to rally the crowd at intermission.

One important point that was stressed at the last event and again last night was that the downtown businesses were the overall sponsors of this entertainment - not the Chamber of Commerce. Although, there was a lot of cooperative work being done between the two groups. That collaboration is key to the success of this event.

We really enjoyed the fact that the evening’s lead sponsor gets to do a bit of promotion. Will a bridal show be on tap in the future? Or, maybe a beer-chugging contest sponsored by one of the downtown “pubs”? just random thoughts to ponder…

 One highlight of the dancing action was a certain Jaquie Allen of Charlotte, who was able to dance (disco-style actually), and hula-hoop at the same time. She provided quite a bit of entertainment for the crowd and did some instructional work with the kids at the same time. We love it Belmont!

The food vendors are constantly improving. The po-po are lightening up a bit, and the city’s street maintenance crews seem to be enjoying themselves so much more. Maybe that overtime agreement helped out a lot…

The downtown merchants hawked the Friday Night Live! t-shirts for $10, and explained that the funds raised would be going to a scholarship program for South Point students. They brought up some of the applicant/volunteers of the scholarship program during the intermission. Pretty neat idea there folks.

Overall, another enjoyable night in the lively downtown area. We think it would be cool if the merchants association could give out some economic impact numbers by week or by season. It helps when you are attempting to draw interest to the community at several levels.

The next Friday Night Live! is June 13 with Jimmy Quick & the Coastline band.

Don’t forget the Parks and Recreation concerts in the park, next Saturday night with the Center City Groove Band.

Rough Draft TONIGHT! Friday Night Live!

Rough Draft will be performing tonight on Main Street in downtown Belmont. This is the second of the Friday Night Live series sponsored by the downtown merchants association.

Festivities begin at 6:30 PM.

Bring your dancing feet!

 

 

RE: Belmont’s Busy Weekend

Well, a big weekend has come and gone in dear old Belmont.

Some of the more progressive realtors in town were able to piggyback on the weekend that drew thousands of visitors to Friday Night Live!, the Garibaldi Festival, and the Belmont Women’s Club Home Tour. There were multiple “open houses” for homes that were for sale in the Belmont area. Realtors certainly took advantage to show their listings this weekend and particularly on Sunday.

photos from Belmont Rocks! website:

Some homes for sale within the tour pattern were visited by a number of individuals, and a few received offers this week according to our sources.

Now this is the way to market Belmont, events, social life, school activities, and FUN!

congratulations to all the people who continue to show the best of what Belmont has to offer. This summer should be very interesting with all the upcoming events that are planned.