Macon It A Great First Night
Macon, a veritable Justin Timberlake of a city, is bringing First Night Back.
For those of you unfamiliar with First Night, it’s a roughly 15 year old tradition in which, rather than getting snookered out of your skull and freezing to pieces, you go to a wide variety of artistic events and then see fireworks at midnight. Fun for grownups, great for the kids.
Atlanta should have one of these events. They did in the days when John Briggs was in town. We have the artistic companies, we have the venues (though the lack of close proximity is what makes this a difficult process) and we have a population looking for interesting and affordable things to do. Even if the folks downtown or in midtown did not want to pick it up, a city such as Decatur or East Point would get such an infusion of people and popularity from an event like this. That they don’t amazes.
Gainesville picked up the mantle for Georgia, but after a couple of good years, their effort began to substantially slide. They have decided not to do a First Night this year.
Now Macon is giving it a shot. Their publicity has not been great. There have been no artist profiles, no area map; just a website mention which clicks through to a word document of events. Still, it’s better than nothing and, if you live in town or just south, it’s easy to make it down and back! Plus, one of the venues is St. Joseph’s Cathedral, a century old building which has been completely restored. Beautiful.
