Westobou - Five stops and familiar faces

Last night was a five stop Westobou evening. I started at Le Chat Noir, just stopping in to check on ticket sales for the theater's Thursday performance. A sell out. Great news. My next stop was the Augusta Common, where contemporary Christian act 33 Miles performed. Again, a good crowd, perhaps better than the frankly mediocre band deserved. But hey, people seemed to be having a good time. That's certainly worth something.

After leaving the Common, I walked down to the Imperial Theatre for the Lewis Family/Lizzy Long show, the first in the the Morris Museum of Art's Southern Soul and Song series. This was a performance I was frankly worried about. There were a lot of things I felt could go wrong and keep patrons away. The Lewis Family is from Lincolnton and many fans see the act annually at its own bluegrass festival. It was a Thursday, not the weakest on nights for entertainment, but also not the strongest. It was occurring toward the end of Westobou, but before a couple of big events. I thought patrons beginning to suffer from performance burnout might stay away. I wasn't even sure that the rumored appearance by authentic American treasure Earl Scruggs, who did indeed show up, could save the day.  Fortunately, my cynicism seemed (mostly) unfounded. The house was not sold out, but my best guess estimate had approximately 600 of the Imperial's 800-and-change seats occupied.

After leaving the Imperial, I stopped by the Common again to check on Slow Dancing, which had attracted a small crowd (perhaps post-33 Miles folk?) before heading down to Sky City for the annual Billy S P.E.A.C.E. show. The low-key concert and art show might not have packed them in, but the crowd was reasonable and more than reasonably enthusiastic.

The one slightly disturbing common denominator I noticed last night, and each night preceding actually, was that I recognized so many faces. The crowds at every concert, exhibition, recital and performance have been, by-and-large, local.

I'm not sorry to see locals supporting Westobou. That was always an important part of the equation. What worries me is that quick scans of the audiences and parking lots -- which made me feel a little stalker creepy -- seemed to indicated that the vast majority of Westobou patrons are a decidedly Augusta-centric crowd.

Westobou was designed to be and touted as a regional arts festival, attracting dollars from outside the metro area. So far, that doesn't seem to have happened. Does that mean Westobou is faltering? Probably not. What it means is the organizers have built a foundation, proven that the concept is successful and, with a couple of tweak, can continue to grow. Rome wasn't built in a day, nor was Spoleto. My marathon last night proved that Augusta is willing to support the Westobou experiment and only time, a some some effort, will determine if it can expand beyond its local limitations.