SBC Co-sponsors ‘Get!Downtown’

‘Friday Cheers’-type event aimed at area college students but public welcome

SUZANNE RAMSEY
College relations staff writer

2008 Sweet Briar grad Michelle Raymond and her band will play at “Get!Downtown.” Photo by Shawnee Custalow.

Sweet Briar’s co-curricular life office is one of several area colleges that is co-sponsoring “Get!Downtown,” an event organizers hope will draw thousands of area college students to Lynchburg’s historic downtown. Presented by Lynch’s Landing, “Get!Downtown” is a non-alcoholic take on the popular “Friday Cheers” concert series the group puts on each summer.

From 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11, local bands and performers from area colleges — including 2008 SBC graduate Michelle Raymond and her band — will take the stage at the Lynchburg Community Market on Main Street.

Other highlights include roving street performers and dancers, a scavenger hunt, an “event zone” with games and other activities, salsa and line dance lessons, karaoke, and two “graffiti walls” where folks can legally express themselves with spray paint.

Main Street, from Commerce to 6th Street, will be blocked off to vehicular traffic for the event, and area shops have been encouraged to stay open late. Vendors — everything from cell phone companies to restaurants — are invited to set up tables and advertise their products and services, and craft vendors will set up shop in the Community Market parking lot.

At 9 p.m., local singer Paul Brunett and visiting band Farewell Flight will play at the Academy of Music on Main Street. Tickets are $5 with college ID and $10 for the general public. Only 600 tickets are available. At the same time, Westbound, a Newport News band, will perform a free concert at the White Hart, which is located across the street from the Community Market.

Sweet Briar’s campus events organization is donating funds for the event, and the student involvement and programming will shuttle SBC students to and from Lynchburg. Co-curricular life also will host a tent with raffle prizes.

Robyn Sanderson, director of student involvement and programming, wants to “gauge how many Sweet Briar students show up,” especially first-years.  “I hope we can get 200 SBC students there,” she said via e-mail. “I’m hoping that is a conservative number.”

Admission to “Get!Downtown” is free, and the non-college-age public also is invited. For more information, contact Sanderson at rsanderson@sbc.edu or Ext. 6134.