Several downtown venues will participate in the music and comedy festival that is part of the annual frank gathering promoting social change.
Tonight, with a little music to keep you warm, Gainesville becomes Changeville.
Most everyone has already heard about the Charles Bradley concert that will mark the re-opening of Bo Diddley Community Plaza, but that event is only one part of a long evening of entertainment at a half-dozen venues throughout downtown Gainesville.
Once Bradley leaves the stage, events at High Dive, Market Street Pub and the Wooly shift into gear with live music and comedy. Meanwhile, the Hippodrome Cinema and Volta Coffee will already be participating with films and virtual-reality displays.
According to its organizers at the UF College of Journalism and Communications, Changeville is “a film, virtual reality, music and comedy festival where artists of purpose can connect.”
The night of events is the general public’s portion of the college’s annual gathering known as frank, a three-day conference at the Hippodrome designed to inspire social change through use of media. This year’s seventh frank conference, which continues through Friday, features about 340 attendees and more than 40 speakers.
Last year was the first time the frank gathering included a public concert. The featured entertainment was the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The renowned New Orleans-based musicians performed the last concert at Bo Diddley Community Plaza a year ago before closing for much-needed renovations.
“Last year we didn’t know what to expect and 3,000 people showed up,” said Pat Lavery, the music and production director for Changeville. “We got such positive feedback, we wanted to do a local music festival this year.”
For one night, Changeville will be a small-scale version of the annual South by Southwest festival held annually in Austin, Texas.
According to Lavery, Bradley is the ideal headliner for Changeville.
“They wanted an artist who kind of embodies the spirit of positive social change,” he said.
Bradley was born in Gainesville but moved to Brooklyn with his mother when he was an infant. He lived a life of relative obscurity and, at one point, homelessness before finally being discovered in midlife by Gabriel Roth of Daptone Records.
When Bradley was a teenager, his sister had taken him to Harlem’s Apollo Theatre to see James Brown perform. Bradley immediately started mimicking Brown’s voice and mannerisms. Many years later, he performed in New York nightclubs as Black Velvet, a spot-on James Brown impersonator. That’s when Roth took Bradley under his wing and launched his singing career.
Bradley released his first album, No Time for Dreaming, in 2011 at age 63. He followed that up with Victim of Love two years later. In April, Bradley will release his third album, appropriately called Changes.
The full-length documentary Soul of America, which premiered at South by Southwest in 2012, follows Bradley’s remarkable rise from poverty to stardom.
Don’t be surprised if Bradley leaves the stage at some point tonight and gives hugs to certain audience members.
“Sometimes I can really, actually look in their faces and see the hurt,” he told Radio.com. “I walk out on stage and see that person and hug that person. I try to hug all I can. …Sometimes my tour manager has to get me, ‘Charles, come down. It’s time to go.’ I just really want to hug everybody.”
The festivities begin at 5:30 p.m. with a street fair around Bo Diddley Plaza that will include several food trucks and drink tents sponsored by Swamp Head Brewery.
After an opening ceremony by city officials and welcoming remarks from frank officials, the music begins at 6:30 p.m. with a performance from Gainesville’s own Savants of Soul. The 10-piece band, including a horn section, released its latest single, “Second Chance Lover,” in January.
At 7:15, Gainesville blues legend “Little Jake” Mitchell will appear with his Soul Searchers band. Mitchell was known as “Mr. Excitement” when he shared stages with the likes of Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and James Brown himself.
Bradley will take the stage at 8:30 with his touring band, The Extraordinaires. The stop is part of Bradley’s Changes Tour that will include 12 concerts throughout Europe beginning March 30.
Changeville events begin at the Hippodrome Cinema with a 3:30 p.m. screening of the full-length drama film Nontraditional. At 6:30 is the documentary on racial bias titled 3 1/2 minutes: 10 Bullets, followed at 9 by the Oscar-nominated motion picture Spotlight.
Meanwhile, Volta Coffee at 48 SW 2nd St. will be offering three Virtual Reality showings from 7-10 p.m. One is called “Ferguson Firsthand,” a reconstruction of the Canfield Green Apartments Complex where Michael Brown was fatally shot on Aug. 9, 2014.
At High Dive, 210 SW 2nd Ave., the Changeville music lineup includes Il Gato at 9:30 p.m., Flat Land at 10:30 and John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats at 11:30.
At the Wooly, 20 N. Main St., Tomboi takes the stage at 9:45, Wax Wings at 10:45 and Hurray for the Riff Raff at 11:45.
At Market Street Pub & Cabaret, 112 SW 1st Ave., the comedy lineup includes MC Greg Hay at 9:15, Yuri Costa at 9:25; Sam Speedy at 9:35, Darrel Chapman at 9:45, Hay again at 9:55, followed by Dr. Sinn’s Freak Island Musical at 10:15.
“All the artists performing are using their platform as artists for positive social change,” Lavery said. “They were hand-picked by the people at frank.”
Lavery, who graduated from the UF in 2000, said that is important to get the entire community involved.
“A big part of this event is reaching out to the community and integrating UF and downtown Gainesville,” he said. “That’s a big part of Changeville.”
— Noel Leroux
For further info, visit the Changeville website.
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