Riverbend timeline
› 1982: Bruce Storey and his Variety Services company are hired to produce a new festival modeled after Spoleto Charleston Festival in South Carolina.
Walter Breland is named chair of the first board of directors.
› August 1982: Riverbend debuts with a six-night event spread over several venues, including a chamber music concert at the Tivoli, a hot-air balloon launched from Vine Street and a children’s film festival at the old Kirkman School near what is now AT&T Field. Some events were free, and some were ticketed.
› 1983: Admission pins are introduced for the first time.
› 1992: Storey is replaced as director by Richard Brewer, cofounder of Variety Services.
› 1999: Chip Baker is named the new executive director.
› September 2019: Friends of the Festival board of directors announces changes after 2016-18 festivals lost money, including cutting the event from nine to four days, nearly doubling the price of admission from $45 to $80, eliminating corporate admission sales and requiring wristbands be used for all purchases. The event is also moved to late May instead of mid-June.
› October 2019: Chip Baker announces his retirement after 20 years as executive director.
Mickey McCamish is named executive director. Songbirds staff is brought on to help produce the event and to book a lineup.
› March 2020: COVID-19 forces Riverbend to postpone.
› June 2020: The 2020 festival is canceled. Friends of the Festival rebrands Riverfront Nights as Chattanooga Unite: Healing and Uniting on the River and puts its energies into producing the free six-show summer series.
› June 2021: The festival is postponed another year because of the pandemic.
› June 2022: Riverbend returns as three-day festival with an attendance cap, a focus on VIP experiences and a more narrow musical field.
› June 2023: Riverbend is held over three days, with a new cashless policy.
› October 2023: McCamish announces Riverbend will go on hiatus in 2024 to give organizers time to evaluate what customers want from the festival.