After a last-minute venue change, The Wailers, the former band of Bob Marley, will fill downtown Burlington with music Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. at the Burlington Food Hall.
Wellsley Robinson, owner of the Burlington Food Hall, said that she was approached about a month ago to host The Wailers after the band found out the original venue they were scheduled to perform in would still be under construction.
Upon hearing from the original venue in Greensboro, Robinson said The Wailers came to her to host the event on Front Street, right in front of the food hall. She said that after working with the city, Robinson, as well as her city and local partners, discovered the street is perfectly designed for events such as this.
“We found that we actually are really well set up, just naturally, to host an event like this with the way that our roads flow, our sidewalks flow, our parking lots, and also just the way the buildings are positioned,” Robinson said. “It naturally turns into a little bit of a community block party for everybody to be involved in, and it's just really special.”
Robinson said the concert will be the first of its kind for the food hall as well as for Burlington. Robinson also said the time frame to plan it is tight, with this idea only being brought to her about a month ago.
She said The Wailers have been working with her and the city to provide advice and help throughout the process.
“We've just never done it before, so The Wailers have been just really nice about sharing tips and tricks and saying, ‘Oh, well, you should put this out on Instagram this way,’’’ Robinson said. “So the Instagram stuff really started getting pushed a few days ago. So everything's just happening so quickly, putting the logistics in place.”
With the event being held right outside the food hall, Robinson said she is expecting around 2,000 people to attend the concert.
President of Burlington Downtown Corp. Wade Boteler said he hopes this event will provide a lot of growth to downtown.
“We would love for this downtown area to continue to grow, to continue to become more revitalized, more energetic,” Boteler said. “This being an evening event is a very, very exciting thing. I think the nightlife in Burlington, North Carolina, has a tremendous opportunity to grow and to be more energetic.”
Beyond growing downtown, Chip Foushee, a board member of Burlington Downtown Corp., hopes this increases interest in local businesses.
“It just creates buzz downtown,” Foushee said. “It creates a reason to go downtown. It creates a reason to talk about downtown. It gives an extra opportunity for the businesses to show off what they have and what they do. People will be down here. They're going to be eating, they're going to be having fun. They're going to be checking out store windows at a time when there's normally not a lot of traffic down here, and that's good for everybody.”
Robinson said she hopes this concert will be the first of many big events that the food hall can be a part of.
“I hope that from this, it opens the door not only for the food hall, but for downtown as a whole to maybe become more involved,” Robinson said. “North Carolina is growing so fast. I mean, Elon's growing, everybody's growing right in our state, and so maybe it would give us the opportunity to become more and more involved in things that are happening statewide, because there's a lot going on.”
The Wailers will perform Friday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m. outside of Burlington Food Hall on Front Street. More information is available on the food hall’s Facebook page.