Friday Cheers celebrates 40 years of after-work magic
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Friday Cheers in 2023. Image: Courtesy of David Parrish Photography via Venture Richmond
Friday Cheers is back this week, kicking off two months of pre-summer concerts.
Why it matters: This is the 40th year of Richmond's longest-running outdoor concert series.
Flashback: Friday Cheers got its start in the 1980s, in Festival Square, which was just outside of the then-brand-new Sixth Street Marketplace, the Times-Dispatch reported a decade ago.
- The series was an after-work favorite for downtown professionals, who would loosen their ties and head over straight from the office to take in a free show, per Style Weekly.
- It stayed in Festival Square, in the shadow of the now long-closed Richmond Coliseum, for 20 years before eventually making the move to Brown's Island in 2006.
- On Brown's, overlooking the James, is where the concert series really took shape and became one that a whole new generation of locals came to love.
Zoom in: Over the years, there have been other changes. Cheers started charging $5-$10 for shows to offset the cost and attract bigger acts.
- The season shrank, going from all summer to just May and June, because of Richmond's brutal late summer heat
- Plus, the beer and wine selection is now stellar.
What they're saying: "For a concert series to last for 40 years is a real accomplishment and I'm so proud of our team, the RVA community and our sponsors for loving and supporting Friday Cheers for so many years," says Stephen Lecky, director of events for Venture Richmond, which organizes the series.
Cheers has hosted an impressive lineup of then up-and-comers along the way, Lecky tells Axios, including:
- The Head and the Heart, Jason Isbell, Tyler Childers, Alabama Shakes, Lucy Dacus, Zac Brown Band and Turnpike Troubadours.
Fun fact: For the 40th anniversary, Venture commissioned Richmond-based artist Hannah Tatum to create a limited-edition poster, which features local critters (an osprey and eastern grey squirrel) jamming on the 7th Street pedestrian bridge that connects to the island.
- Written faintly in the sky behind them are the names of the bands that played Cheers through the years.
- 100 prints are available and for sale this season for $20.
If you go: Friday Cheers starts Friday with Chaparelle and runs weekly through June 27.
- Gates open at 6pm, music starts at 6:30pm. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the gate. Kids 12 and under are free. Season passes are available.
- Other highlights from this year's lineup include Kashus Culpepper, Say She She and The War And Treaty.