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Community Corner

Festival Season on the Horizon

Warm weather means more street performers in the neighborhood

Even with CBS trying its hardest to keep me glued to the TV by broadcasting a full slate of college basketball madness (Go 'Cuse!), I still made it outside this weekend to take the dog for a lengthy walk and generally bask in the warm temperatures.

It is, after all, the first day of spring; it seemed like everyone — and every dog — in Virginia-Highland was out this weekend celebrating the new season.

Sure, it's nice to finally be able to wear shorts, but I'm most excited about the musical possibilities that come with the change in weather. That's right, festivals are just around the corner.

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It's never to early to start thinking about Summerfest, which seems to be our claim to fame around these parts. Of course, it's a little annoying to have your street blocked off for an entire weekend, but that's a small price to pay for having a bunch of bands literally playing in your backyard. Check out the Summerfest website for more details on the festival, which, admittedly, doesn't happen until June.

One more immediate result of the warm weather is the presence of street musicians. When people flood the intersection of Virginia and Highland, you can be sure there will be a few musicians around playing for spare change.

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The corner diagonally across from Yeah! Burger is a prime spot, but I've also seen artists playing near the benches in front of Highland Woodworking.

 Guitar Red is the most famous of Atlanta's meager scene of street players, but he usually stays in and around the square in Decatur, and I've never seen him in this area.

The blues singer has a pretty good CD to his credit on Backspace records and has become something of a Decatur celebrity. I spent an afternoon interviewing him a while back, and I remember him telling me that he was so recognized by everyone around town that he "had become part of the concrete." 

Virginia-Highland has its own Guitar Red, a harmonica and guitar player named John who plays original compositions but always takes requests.

Decked out in a Panama hat and a Hawaiian shirt, his amplified voice fills the nearby streets more nights than not. 

Though it's gotten easier for Red, John and other musicians to perform on the streets, they still occasionally face harassment from police and hostile business owners. In the ’90s, one of the main deterrents to street performance was found in Chapter 30 of the city code, otherwise known as the Atlanta Vending Ordinance.

The law stated that street musicians needed a vending permit in order to play their songs on the street without risk of prosecution. Two musicians filed a suit with the city, and new language freeing performers from the law was eventually adopted. 

One kid who never gets harassed usually comes out only during Summerfest. He sets up his amp and microphone on the steps of the house at the corner of Maryland and Virginia, plugs in his electric guitar, and sings classic rock covers for hours. I've always seen a crowd huddled around his small section of the festival and a tip jar filled with bills.

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