By Suzanne Schmidt
Staff Writer
WESLEY CHAPEL — The Shops at Wiregrass bring that main street festival feel to the mall with The Gatherings, an event featuring live music, shopping deals and kids entertainment.
The Gatherings will be from 6 to 9 p.m. every Thursday March through May. The main attraction is the live entertainment featuring a variety of music including rock, reggae, R & B, folk, oldies, pop, contemporary jazz and more. The first event on March 3 will feature the acts Bus Stop, The Spells and Ricky Wilcox.
Bus Stop is a six-member group with an upbeat dance and funk sound. The Spells is an acoustic duo featuring pianist Tracy LaBarbera and guitarist Gale Trippsmith. Ricky Wilcox is an intelligent mish-mash of British pop, Americana and early 80’s Athens smart jangle.
Chad Doritan, director of marketing for the Shops, said the event is meant to bring out people during an otherwise slow night.
“We close down the streets and set up three stages one at each end of the shopping center and one in the center,” Doritan said. “We wanted to have the event in order to kick off the weekend.”
After the success of last year’s events with the Shops getting about 3,000 to 5,000 visitors each Thursday night, Doritan said it just makes sense to do it again.
“We saw a lot of new faces and a lot of the same people every week,” Doritan said.
The music is booked through Skipper’s Smokehouse talent agency. It will be different every week. The goal of the event is to have something for everyone to enjoy.
“We will have a variety of music,” Doritan said. “The music we had last year was a big hit. We had a lot of people come out just to hear a specific band. It really drew even more people then we expected.”
In addition to the live entertainment, stores are encouraged to bring some merchandise out in front of the shops and offer one-night only deals for the event.
“There is a lot of flow with people walking from one stage to the next,” Doritan said. “Sometimes they even have entertainment in the stores.”
Some restaurants also have specials for the event. Grillsmith will offer an extended happy hour with half price wine, beer and mixed drinks and a large variety of appetizers for $5.
Joe Brooks, managing partner of Grillsmith, said he was happy with how many people the events brought out last year.
“The marketing department does a wonderful job of having all kinds of events,” Brooks said. “We saw a 25 percent sales increase on those evenings. This year will be even better because we will have patio dining.”
The children’s area offers face painting, bounce houses and live children’s entertainment like stage shows.
“For the first event, we will have Mr. Tommy Girbin,” Doritan said. “He is a children’s musician with a very interactive show. He is not the only guy we will have, but it is that kind of thing we will have every week. It will be something kids can enjoy.”
Visitors to the event are encouraged to bring their dogs as well.
“We also saw a lot of people bring their dogs last year,” Doritan said. “One week we had a beach theme with beach music and we invited people to dress up. We had more dogs dressed up than people.”
The Shops also offers various other activities including a kids day every Wednesday, a classic car show every month, bike nights and more. For information, visit www.theshopsatwiregrass.com.
