Ribbon Cutting!

Saturday was the Ribbon Cutting and grand opening concert for the Viceroy Performing Arts Center. This is the new amphitheater that was built by Oak Grove Tourism. I spent months planning this event and trying to make sure everythin was perfect. I had plaques made for several of our supporters: Fort Campbell, the City of Oak Grove, Christian County, and the architect, Brad Martin. I had 3 opening acts play who were all really fantastic. And the headliner was one of my favorite, favorite artists! Aaron Tippin!!!

I left the house just before 7 AM to go get some portable heaters and pick up a van I had rented to carry around Aaron's band as needed. Then to the park by about 8:30 to start working. Meanwhile, we had all been at the park from noon until 5 on Friday setting up tents and getting things prepared. The bands started arriving at about 8:45, first Tippin's bus and then about noon the openers showed up to do sound checks. We had a VIP tent set up, catering brought in, food vendors and a beer tent. We also had inflatables (like a moon walk) set up for the kids. The whole project cost my budget just over $40K. It was fantastic. Well organized and executed. The problem was, the weather decided that after being in the 60's and even 70's for the past weeks, it was going to drop to the mid-40's, rain all day, and have 25-30 mph winds blowing. It was a miserable day!!

As you can imagine, the stage is newly constructed so we have new baby grass growing in lots of places, some places have straw covering the ground and some places just have dirt. Well, yesterday it was like a 4-wheeler's dream. I had mud up to the middle of my shins just from running around yesterday. I went from one side of the park to the other in a constant sprint. The only down time we took was when Aaron was on stage. Then, we stood on the stairs next to the stage and watched a few of his songs. We didn't get to stay long, the guys showed up to take down the VIP tent and we had to get the rope lighting and hors d'oeurves out that we had set up.

I have learned that there are things I cannot control. The weather is obviously one of them. I can do a lot of things. I can plan an event so that it is executed perfectly, I can make sure all the right people are invited, I can squeeze and maneuver my budget so everything works, and I can bust my butt to make sure it all goes smoothly (or bumps get addressed quickly) on the day of the event. However, 40-degree weather keeps people home. No matter what their intentions, no matter how much they wanted to come or planned to come, when it's freezing outside they stay home. We had expected about 45 in our VIP tent. We might have had 20. We had phone call after phone call about the concert, from Louisville even! We expected 2-3,000 to show. It was, after all, FREE to the public and was a welcome home concert to the soldiers as they are returning home from lengthy deployments. We had 100 people there...maybe 200 for Aaron's show, but that's a stretch. For the openers there might have been 20. It was awful. I felt so bad. But, again, I can't make people come and I can't change the weather.

Next summer...get ready for some great shows and WARM weather!

The video here is me singing the National Anthem during the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. COL Swope, Garrison Commander, Fort Campbell, actually gave me a coin for it! Enjoy!