Are you ready for a whole season of music in Aiken? This Fall, neighborhoods, lifestyle and advocacy groups, dreamers and thinkers, and a collaboration of Aiken media resources are working together to help #connectAiken through arts and music. In the middle of this campaign, we are bringing all of our diverse communities together for Aiken City Limits Music Festival on October 17 – 20. Save the date!
Plan a weekend to be a tourist in your own town with regional touring musicians; Allman Brothers, Jack Pearson, in town for a Showcase Concert; an Amp the Alley Kickoff show; three stages around town on Saturday; a Mimosa crawl and restaurant specials; an Entrepreneur Village; the Trolley musicians back on board to transport us between venues, and the Gospel Brunch and Sunset Finale on Sunday.
Aiken has been talking about connecting since 2016 when City of Aiken Mainstreet consultant, Community Design Solutions, proposed the #connectAiken project. What a great story they proposed (see more below)!
A top-down #connectAiken effort was started almost immediately by the City. Some key major partners were enlisted, but there was no real passion for the program. But read that story! It’s great! It’s what needs to happen in Aiken! It’s time to build Aiken’s future from the grassroots level, where we can be “YaySayers” versus “NoSayers” to ask for what we want and work toward those goals together.
The Evolution of Aiken City Limits
The first Aiken City Limits Music Festival happened in 2017, using #connectAiken through arts and music. Music was programmed in many neighborhoods during the weekend for the past two years, and this year we have decided to stretch those efforts out to allow more neighborhoods and groups time to plan their events and for all of us to be able to have the time to participate in even more events this Fall.
#connectAiken ACL mini-events are being planned, and more groups are joining in every day. On sale will be $10 tickets – good for any of the officially sanctioned ACL mini-events – at outlets all around Aiken this Fall (see AikenCityLimits.com for outlets). Part of each ticket sold helps to fund our coordination of the #connectAiken campaign! We are experimenting with new venues and bringing back cover charges to help create a sustainable music business model in Aiken again!
Connecting through arts and music is fun! It is good for economic development. It is a reason to get together and network so the #connectAiken story is a success, grassroots style!
We are a City built on a railroad connection. Our city grew around the railroad with stunning parkways set amidst wide boulevards. This layout created unique connections within Aiken that have defined our place and that we continue to cherish to this day.
We are connecting this place we call home.
We realize that our Parkways are to Aiken what the Park squares are to Savannah and what the waterfront is to Charleston. They are our defining feature. We are reimagining our parkways as lively, creative, and beautiful places that are welcome to people. In so doing, we will be enhancing their stunning setting, creating safer, more vibrant neighborhoods and preserving the beauty that has come to define us.
Through ConnectAiken, we are bringing people together.
Through thoughtful discussion, creative thinking, and a spirit of cooperation, we are joining young and old, black and white, newcomers and long timers, students and leaders. Whether it is an event to celebrate our community, a warm welcome to a new resident or a helping hand for someone in need, our goal is that Connect Aiken unites our community in positive dialogue about our future vision.
We are also connecting businesses.
Our partners are committed to a thriving business community that serves our region while making Aiken unique. We stand ready to embrace the opportunity for a growing economy to keep our community vibrant. To that end we are exploring ways to encourage investment, be business friendly, and to support those who make our home a great place to live.
We are proud to build on this history of connections with a new initiative.
We are thrilled to announce a bold partnership among many groups to connect people, place, and business with a vision for the future. This partnership is not a new group, but rather a reaffirmation of the sacred missions of organizations working hard to make Aiken,
South Carolina, a better place to live, work, and visit.
We call this partnership Connect Aiken.
Here’s how you can get #connected
Grab your phone and follow these Facebook and Instagram pages: @AikenSCBlend @AikenBella @AikenCityLimitsMusicFestival. That’s where the event schedules will be, where the #connectAiken stories will be shared, and where we’ll document all of our #connectAiken activities.
Go to the AikenCityLimits.com website and sign up for weekly emails about the #connectAiken campaign and Aiken City Limits Music Festival announcements.
Look for #connectAiken mini-event tickets in your own neighborhoods. Locations will be listed on the AikenCityLimits.com website.
Consider being an Aiken City Limits Music Festival sponsor and benefit from our extensive media collaborations. Your sponsorship helps produce the weekend events and keeps most activities free. From the kickoff event during Amp the Alley on October 17 to the Sunset Finale on October 20, it will be a fun weekend of all things music in Aiken. There are levels of support to fit any budget and a custom marketing package can be designed to make sure your support for #connectAiken is mutually beneficial! Email [email protected] to ask for sponsorship details and forms.
Pay attention when the Aiken Downtown Development Association efforts to pass a Street Performers permit ordinance before October 17 goes before City Council. Show up to add your ideas and show your support. We’ll get to have some Busk until Dusk events after that! Imagine street performers all along the downtown streets on Fridays evenings when Finally Friday! stores are open late.
Find your niche: #Aiken4Music, #Aiken4SafeCommunities, #Aiken4Entrepreneurs, #Aiken4Parkways, #Aiken4Bicycles, #Aiken4Aiken and so many more. Start your own hashtag! Just use the #Aiken4 prefix. Folks will be looking for where they can bring their strengths and talents to the #connectAiken program.
Sign up to be a vendor at the Field of Dreams Entrepreneur Village at Highfields Event Center on October 19. Foodies, Artisans, Small Batch Manufacturers, Artists, and Musicians will be collaborating in the Village all day. The City of Aiken is setting up a Business Connect area to provide information for how we can help these small businesses grow. Real support efforts! The Indie Arts Vintage Market crew is managing the Field of Dreams. Email [email protected] for more information about helping sponsor or setting up a booth.
Support ACL Mini-Events! That’s the #connectAiken activities that are all around town so the whole town gets #connected!
Invite your family and friends to come hang out in Aiken October 17-20. Many of us travel to hear music in other cities, but let’s support our efforts to brand Aiken as a music town as well, so more people travel here! We’ve already got Aiken Bluegrass Festival, Joye In Aiken, Aiken Music Fest,
Amp the Alley, Symphony, Hopelands Concert series, nonprofit dance parties, and so much more that we can easily put a brand around for Aiken and build upon those assets.
One of the #connectAiken story slides says, in part, “We are thrilled to announce a bold partnership among many groups to connect people, place, and business with a vision for the future.”
People are our greatest assets, we need businesses in order to be able to grow, and we have an amazing historic and charming place to work with! “People, place, and business… ” all connecting with a Vision for the Future.
We know what we want. We have all sat through countless strategic planning input sessions. It is so easy to say, “Why doesn’t someone do something?” It’s up to us. We have amazing assets to thread together to help build a sustainable future for Aiken! Let’s #RockandRoll while we’re doing it and accomplish a lot in a little bit of time!
#ThisLittleTownGetsDown #connectAiken #AikenGroupie #AikenTrolley #Aiken4Music #Aiken4Aiken
by Katy Lipscomb, founder, Aiken City Limits Music Festival, a #ConnectAiken project
Katy Lipscomb has lived in Aiken since 1984 and has been a small business owner here since 1992. She owns Material Things, a design shop, Aiken Blend, a grassroots communications digital magazine, and operates the Indie Arts Vintage Market #downonPark. She is a member of the City of Aiken Parkways Committee, the Design Review Board, the ADDA Design Committee, the Aiken County Public Schools Communications Committee and is on the Aiken High School Improvement Council. Prior to 1992 she had a career as a systems analyst.
