Over the four-month series more than 3,500 people attended the evening events. From across Nashville people came and parked chairs and spread blankets with friends and kids to enjoy local music, food and craft beer. Even Cornelia Fort’s octogenarian niece, Ms. Julia Fort Lowe, dropped in for a visit!
Importantly, Friends of Shelby raised nearly $20,000 for investiture in Cornelia Fort Airpark all while creating 140 jobs for Nashville musicians, illustrators, tee shirt printers, audio engineers, stagehands, lighting & electrical techs, food vendors, rental houses, and security firms.
With Aerial Development Group taking the lead as Presenting Sponsor, the Cornelia Fort Pickin’ Party was able to execute and promote on a vastly more professional scale than would have otherwise been possible. Sincere thanks to you, Aerial.
Major Event Partners were The East Nashvillian (2x full EN page ads with 40,000 monthly readers plus FB, and blog posts), Alphagraphics (200 posters, 1,000 handbills, banners, and POP displays), and Radio Lightning 100 (4x week-long promotional radio flights with 100,000 weekly listeners). Yazoo Brewing Co. donated their fine brew-craft products to bolster both attendance and bottom line. The Pickin’ Party would not have been a success without you all… Thank you!
Further contributing partners were Carter’s Vintage Guitars, East Side Family Medicine, East Side Smiles, Fanny’s House of Music, The Rogers Group, Walk Bike Nashville, The Violin Shop, and Volunteer Welding. Not only did you help solidify the bottom line but you brought success in a broad, community-spirited sense. To each of you our sincerest thanks.
Serving up hot & cold deliciousness were Casa Segovia Empanadas, Confeastadors, Crepe A Diem, Crankee’s Pizza, Edley’s BBQ, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream, Hoss’ Loaded Burgers, Lockeland Table, and The Post East. To paraphrase Napoleon Bonaparte, “An army dances on its stomach…” Thank you!
A multi-generational event, the Cornelia Fort Pickin’ Party has rekindled public interest in this gem of the Metro Parks system. Cornelia Fort enjoyed broad editorial/promotional support in Middle Tennessee viaThe Tennesseean, the Nashville Scene, and such online/social media sites as: Do615, Historic Nashville, Inc, East Nashville Living, Nashville.com, acrestate.com, Concerts in Nashville, Now Playing Nashville, Nashvilleguru.com, WSMV events, Nashvilleparent.com, Nashville.kidsoutandabout.com, WPLN.com events, plus thousands of twitter, FB, and Instagram shared personal posts from Pickin’ Party fans.
On television, Fox 17 picked up the series as a story on community-led activism for an old park and WKRN News2 selected the series for their Positively Tennessee feature series.
With the assistance and trust of Metro Parks Events, Facilities and Maintenance, very good things are coming from all of this! Thanks to Metro Parks, new security doors and exterior lighting have decreased the activity and the access of vandals. At the request of the Pickin’ Party organizers NES repaired/replaced the parking-field lights.
Post-flood, Metro Parks had restored the Hangar 1 power panel, and with Friends of Shelby/Pickin’ Party funds a permanent install of pro-grade twist plugs, Gfci safety plugs, an array of grounded Edison plugs,and a 220V tap have been installed and are readily available to the next event organizers, whoever they may be.
Hangar 2 has also found new life, now filled with batting cages for The East Nashville Little league and Stratford High School baseball programs, the restored electric supply paid for, in part, with Pickin’ Party monies through Friends of Shelby.
Meetings will be held soon with Metro Parks and Friends of Shelby to determine next steps and best use for the finances raised through our collective effort. Whatever comes next we will let you know. And we will be in touch with you soon regarding Pickin Party Season 2 in the beautiful, unique, and ever-improving Cornelia Fort Airpark.
Again, our deep and sincere appreciation to you all,
Signed,
Brooke Scurlock, Pres FOS
Karen Lee Ryan, Events Chair FOS
Todd Jarrell, Producer, Todd Squared, LLC
Todd Mayo, Producer, Todd Squared, LLC
Rachel Winston, Event Organizer