What a way to market a city!
The City of Brookhaven held its annual Cherry Blossom Festival on the afternoons of March 23 and 24.
An estimated 58,000 people came both days to enjoy musical acts that normally would cost a pretty penny to hear: Barenaked Ladies, LIVE, Crash Test Dummies, Sister Hazel, Lisa Loeb, Moon Taxi, Takiya Mason and Koyal.
Attendees also could enjoy an extensive artists’ market, a classic car show, a kids’ area and a food court.
The kicker? It was all free.
So, how is it possible to bring top-level bands and present the entire festival free to the public?
It’s because the City of Brookhaven is committed to giving back to its residents and visitors.
“Brookhaven’s founders envisioned a city that brings people together, which is a priority I intend to carry forward,” said Brookhaven Mayor John Park in a statement. “The first Cherry Blossom Festival took place when Brookhaven was barely three years old, and every year is a reaffirmation that we are fulfilling that vision.”
The 2024 festival was the largest ever in the eight festivals that have taken place over the past decade (remember COVID?) It attracted 13,000 more people than the 2023 festival. It is such a popular event that Brookhaven pays for a private shuttle to provide free service from the Brookhaven MARTA Station to the festival, which takes place at the city’s Blackburn Park.
“We had a few issues that can be improved upon for next year,” Park said. “And we begin that work on 2025 Cherry Blossom starting right now.”
The City of Brookhaven understands the value of putting on a free festival that attracts tens of thousands of people to its community.
“We could do an advertising campaign and not get the kind of benefits we get from putting on the festival,” explained former Brookhaven Mayor John Ernst, a champion of the festival during his eight years in office and continues to be involved with the festival. “It’s branding. It’s economic development. It’s place-making. It’s community building. You name it. And I think it translates into someone wanting to buy a home in Brookhaven.”
It costs the City of Brookhaven about $500,000 to put on the festival, and the city is able to recoup more than a third of that cost through festival revenues.
“It’s not self-sustaining, but the idea is that it will be self-sustaining at some point,” said Ernst, who completed two terms as mayor in early January. “This festival is not just economic development — it brings community together. It establishes us as a community that cares about the arts. It is 100 percent about the identity of Brookhaven.”
A year ago, someone came up to Ernst and said “thank you, thank you, thank you for letting me live in a hip city.”
The City of Brookhaven officially was incorporated in 2012, becoming the 16th largest city in Georgia and the second most populous city in DeKalb County after Stonecrest.
Ernst credits the late Rebecca Chase-Williams, who served a brief stint as mayor in 2015, for being the visionary behind the Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival, which was launched the same year. Ernst was elected mayor in 2015 and took office in 2016.
Immediately, Ernst saw the potential of having a signature festival in Brookhaven. When he was only 24, he had attended a 1999/2000 New Year’s Eve party at his best friend’s house that featured Duran Duran as entertainment. He remembered thinking at the time if his friends could afford having such a prominent band at their party, “why can’t we do this as a public event at some point.”
When he became mayor, Ernst “cold-called” Live Nation’s Peter Conlon to see if the concert promoter could help them book acts for the Cherry Blossom Festival. Not only did Conlon say yes, but he agreed to book the bands at no cost. Early on, the idea of a young City of Brookhaven spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a free festival was quite controversial.
“It was questionable about whether it would continue or not,” Ernst said after the first couple of festivals. “The Council was not 100 percent on board.”
The city decided to continue putting on the festival thanks to leadership and vision from Council, Ernst said.
But it also took commitment from then-Mayor Ernst, who took the attitude Brookhaven could put on one of the best festivals in the state — something that became possible when Conlon got on board.
Conlon then assigned Andrew Hingley, co-owner of Eddie’s Attic, who had joined Live Nation in 2016, to book the talent. Five for Fighting was the headliner for the 2017 festival.
Coincidentally, that’s the year Hingley and his family bought a home in Brookhaven. It just happened to be around the corner from Mayor Ernst’s home, and today, Hingley’s eldest son and Ernst’s youngest son are best friends.
Hingley’s connection to Brookhaven and the music business is full of serendipitous encounters.
Back in 2006, Hingley moved to the United States from Manchester, England, to be a professional soccer player. But injuries forced him to come up with a Plan B.
That plan? To break into the music business. So, in 2010, Hingley bought six pairs of shoes from the Walmart off Howell Mill Road, and he put one of his resumes in each shoe, saying he was trying to get his “foot in the door.”
One of those shoes ended up with Alex Cooley, the legendary concert producer and founder of Southern Concert Promotions, who previously had been in business with Peter Conlon. Cooley called up Hingley and left him a long voicemail saying they should meet. That led to a seven-hour lunch and Cooley agreeing to become Hingley’s mentor in the music business.
At that time, Hingley was living in an apartment in the Town of Brookhaven. Cooley, who liked the location, ended up moving into the same complex while he was looking for a house to buy. After Cooley bought a house in Ansley Park, Hingley ended up moving into the carriage house. Cooley, who had bought Eddie’s Attic, had Hingley book the talent.
“If it weren’t for Alex, I wouldn’t have a job. He was so quiet and humble,” Hingley said of Cooley, who died in 2015. “Alex Cooley gifted Eddie’s Attic to me. I didn’t know about it when he was alive, so I couldn’t thank him.”
Hingley continues to co-own Eddie’s Attic with Cooley’s business partner, Dave Mattingly.
After Cooley’s death, Conlon and Live Nation’s Amy Helberg offered Hingley a job at Live Nation. “Both had worked for Alex for many, many years,” Hingley said.
During the 2024 festival, Hingley said he wanted to be sure Cooley’s legacy lives on.
It was obvious to me that it does through the Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival. Back in the early 1970s, Cooley put on free concerts at Piedmont Park on Sunday afternoons with the likes of the Allman Brothers and the Hampton Grease Band among many other national acts.
The Brookhaven festival has found a way to get well-known acts that are affordable because they are looking for opportunities to play in front of big crowds.
Ernst said the Brookhaven festival has become among the top three annual music festivals in Georgia, and unlike many other festivals, it is free — just like Cooley’s festivals were 50 years ago.
As if on cue, the cherry blossom trees were in full bloom during the 2024 festival.
