How ‘Sweet’ it is…

     The street was filled with people and the usual Saturday traffic was nonexistent. Vendors lined the sidewalks of downtown and the rumble of voices filled the air.  It was as if a scene had been taken from a busy metropolis street corner.  This was no typical Saturday in Milledgeville.
     GCSU students, Milledgeville citizens and out-of-towners filled the streets of downtown Milledgeville, last Saturday, Nov. 3, for the fourth annual Sweetwater Festival.  By 10 o’clock when the festival opened to the public, the smell of savory barbeque, funnel cakes and corn dogs wafted within a three-mile radius of downtown.
     Milledgeville Mainstreet expanded the festival, blocking off most streets downtown.  After entering one of the four gates into the festival, visitors were bombarded with all the sights, sounds and smells of any traditional American festival. 
     During the day, West Hancock Street was lined with artists, touting their wares for sale and display.  Take a quick left and festival goers could partake in all sorts of kid-friendly activities including inflatables, a rock wall and a bungee jump.   To the right, proud owners of vintage and specialty cars had lined the street, displaying an array of classic vehicles from Corvette’s, to Bel-Airs and Mustangs.  Along with standard festival gourmet like corndogs and cheese steaks, the annual BBQ cook off was held early in the day and the chefs were selling their award winning recipes. 
     Even though the Sweetwater Festival lasts for only one day, it takes months of planning and preparation along with hundreds of volunteers make this yearly event possible. 
     “It takes a lot of people, and Sweetwater is completely a volunteer staff,” says Lindsey Hornsby, executive assistant of Milledgeville Mainstreet.  “We start having once a month meetings in February and are having one a week meetings by October.  It’s really all in the people that work it.”
     Made possible by an entirely volunteer based staff, Sweetwater starts early in the morning for those who give their time. Volunteers like Ben Barfield, a senior at GCSU, arrived downtown to help set up before the sun rose. 
     “I got there at 5:45 a.m., and other volunteers were already there,” Barfield said.  “We were pretty efficient and got everything done that needed to be done.”
     Barfield helped set up perimeter fencing, unloaded tables and chairs, and helped set up the stage and band equipment for the Student Government Association’s performers.
     This year SGA, once again, organized a wide variety of musical stylings to entertain the large audience throughout the day.  The concerts started with The Scott Little Band, followed by the GCSU Jazz Band, the BBQ Awards and Tochamingo.
     “SGA tries to look at people that aren’t in Milledgeville a lot,” Hornsby said.  “Something new for people that are in town.  Someone up and coming that we think will be really big.  We try to find people that are creative and different and we try to find a variety that we think everybody will enjoy.”
     People from all walks of life attended the festival for many different reasons.
     “I went to college at GCSU and I really enjoyed it.  So I decided to come here for the annual Sweetwater Festival,” said Joe Grizzle.
     “We’re having a blast down here.  A bunch of old friends are here.  It’s more like a yearly meet up, like a reunion.”
     Even students from other schools traveled to Milledgeville to partake in the day’s festivities.
     “I’m here for the music, arts and crafts,  just the cool atmosphere,” said Laura Tate, a freshman at Georgia Southern University.  “My sister goes here and she’s a junior.  I’ve come with her the past two years, and the BBQ is my favorite part of the day, and I didn’t get to eat all of it today, but it smelled really tasty.”
     As the day went on and the sun dipped down into horizon, the vendors began packing up their things as the crowd got ready for the John Butler Trio, the headline act of the evening. 
     The Hackensaw Boys, a bluegrass band from Charlottesville, opened for the Trio.  The six-piece band that included a banjo and a mandolin graced the stage in a lively performance that entertained the crowd and moved some of the crowd to dance.  By the end of the set, the audience was ready for the John Butler Trio to take the stage. 
     For the next two hours, John Butler wowed the crowd with his masterful guitar playing skills.  From crowd favorites to lesser known jams, the Trio played well into the night, finishing their set with an encore that lasted until 12:30 a.m. 
     Once the last song played and the final musician took leave of the stage, groups of people huddled into the familiar Milledgeville bar scene.  The once lively streets were littered with softly rolling plastic cups and the remnants of once floating balloons.  The sounds of the concert had faded into a low hum of canned music and conversation emanating from the full bars.  Sweetwater was over but the memory of the festival would live on in the minds of many, at least until next year.

Matt Baum contributed to the reporting of this article.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 9 2007. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry