Bayfest still rockin’ Mobile

First one in ’95 drew 50,000; this year’s to draw 200,000. Fest’s success parallels downtown’s resurgence.

In the 1990s, many southeastern cities began staging large outdoor music festivals in their downtown areas. Most were successful at first, but eventually fell victim to logistical and economic woes.

Atlanta’s Music Midtown went on a six-year hiatus before returning with a scaled down version in Piedmont Park in 2011; Birmingham’s City Stages shut down for good in 2009; but Mobile’s Bayfest is still going strong and has grown to become Alabama’s largest annual music festival.

Spread out over 20 city blocks of downtown Mobile, Bayfest features an array of acts of varying genres performing on multiple stages. At last year’s festival, fans could catch country star Blake Shelton on one stage, then walk down the street to take in a Ludacris concert on another, along with a slew of regional and local acts on smaller stages in between.

Along with eight different stages for music — including one dedicated to gospel and another to jazz — there also will be a large family and children’s area open during the afternoons of the festival with interactive exhibits, games, contests and handson arts and crafts projects. Headliners for the 2012 Bayfest range from such classic hit makers as Al Green, Journey and Willie Nelson, to more modern acts like Luke Bryan, Pretty Lights and Grace Potter & The Nocturnals.

Organizers expect a crowd of more than 200,000 people at this year’s event, which takes place the first weekend in October. By comparison, the first Bayfest in 1995 had a crowd of 50,000. Bayfest’s success parallels the slow but steady resurgence of downtown itself. Once a vibrant port town — it’s official nickname is “The Port City” — downtown Mobile experienced a decades-long decline that began with the explosion of suburbia in the mid-20th century, especially when a large shopping mall was built in its suburbs in the late 1950s. Mobile native Winston Groom, author of the novel “Forrest Gump,” wrote about his hometown in the August issue of Southern

BLAKE GUTHRIE / BAYFEST Mobile has a similar look and feel to New Orleans in its revitalized downtown area, which is a pastiche of old and new, with sleek modern skyscrapers rising over historic structures. Toby Keith drew a big crowd at last year’s Bayfest in Mobile, Ala....