Bluegrass & Blues

On Green Grass with No Shoes

How Much Better Could It Be?

The Downtown Stage has hosted many events over the years. Better known as Crute Stage to some local residents, it is the standing remnants of a theater that was used by various groups, including Farmville’s own Waterworks Players, until it collapsed unexpectedly in 1994. Today it still serves the residents of Farmville as an excellent open-air theater.

One of the stage’s primary functions today is to serve as the venue for the Main Street Music lineup each summer, an event it hosts with no rivals, and indeed, none in sight! The month of August brought Farmville a combination of bluegrass music and a taste of the blues. Powers and Brown, a duet known for its combination of bluegrass and classic country, and then the Dixie Road Bluegrass band, a quartet of musicians that played bluegrass just for the joy it filled them with, played to a group of families that came well equipped for the event. Butterfly chairs and blankets were spread out on the thick cut grass in front of the stage as families, young and old, settled in to listen to an evening of good music. Children stayed occupied drawing masterpieces in chalk on the sidewalk. The crowd resembled a living, moving patchwork quilt of children and parents, young people and old alike, swaying, nodding and  toe-tapping to the music. The last date for Main Street Music this year is September 17. Mark your calendar now; you don’t want to miss it!