\nIn its first two years, the festival drew crowds between 15,000 and 20,000 people to a downtown undergoing revitalization. It also received frequent comparisons to Austin\u2019s South by Southwest festival, a touchstone for independent music in America.<\/p>\n
\u201cSouth by Southwest: it took them 20 years to make it cool,\u201d Gaylord said. \u201cAll of a sudden Hopscotch comes out of the gate in an amazing way. I think it\u2019s huge for Raleigh.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been known as the Research Triangle. And we\u2019ve been known for science and all these other things. And that\u2019s wonderful. It\u2019s something that\u2019s important to be known for,\u201d said Greg Hatem, owner of Empire Properties, which operates several restaurants downtown.<\/p>\n
Hatem, long a believer in downtown, called Hopscotch \u201ca by-product of Fayetteville Street.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/hopscotch91-300x200.jpg\" "\\"hopscotch9\\"")
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Part of a concert at City Plaza during Hopscotch 2011.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cIt allowed us to get something like a Hopscotch, and now Hopscotch is a stepping stone to even bigger things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Some of the bigger things at play include the International Bluegrass Music Association\u2019s award show, which is moving to Raleigh next year.<\/p>\n
Hopscotch Founder Greg Lowenhagen said organizers of the bluegrass award show studied the Hopscotch model.<\/p>\n
According to Lowenhagen, one selection committee member, commented, \u201cI hope it\u2019s the Hopscotch of bluegrass \u2026 all of these things create a full city calendar and we\u2019re not near a calendar yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the festival\u2019s acclaim, Lowenhagen said it’s still young.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s still a baby. I do. Each year dictates the next year,” he said. “Next year could be a year where we decide to cut bands. We could go back and meet in the middle. We don\u2019t exactly know what we\u2019re doing each time because we have to experience this weekend in September.\u201d<\/p>\n
This will be Hopscotch\u2019s last year as a possession of the Independent Weekly out of Durham. The paper was just bought by the owners of Oregon-based Willamette Week, but Hopscotch will remain in the hands of Steve Schewel and Carolina Independent Productions with Lowenhagen as director.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/hopscotch3.jpg\" "\\"hopscotch3\\"")
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A band plays on the stage at City Plaza during Hopscotch 2011.<\/p><\/div>\n
The Impact<\/strong> \u201cEverybody responds well to it,\u201dHatem said.\u201cEven the folks who are old and decrepit like me and don\u2019t quite understand what\u2019s going on. It\u2019s great to see the energy. \u201c<\/p>\n It’s difficult to quantify the exact economic impact, but for establishments like Hatem\u2019s Raleigh Times Bar, the business isn\u2019t bad.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought sidewalk was going to cave in, earlier,\u201d Hatem said. \u201cWe brought in 100 kegs of beer just for this weekend. We normally do pretty good, but this is ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n He believes the long-term economic impact is perhaps even larger.<\/p>\n Innovative \u201ccompanies can be anywhere. Red Hat can be anywhere,\u201d Hatem said. \u201cBut they know that in order to make a difference and take care of their employees who all have a desire to not split their personal and professional life, they bring them downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt proves that Raleigh is not just a sleepy, college, tech town. It\u2019s not what I grew up with,\u201dGaylord said. \u201cIt\u2019s only going to grow people who come from outside the city\u2019s understanding of Raleigh creative class.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Lowenhagen\u2019s vision of the future, he said it\u2019s difficult to step back and view what you\u2019ve created, when you\u2019ve got a festival to run \u2014 even one that’s a \u201cbaby.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully, it\u2019s just like the life of a human and it\u2019s only 3 years old, and I hope that it ends up being 20 and 40 years old,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hopscotch is entering its third year and has already significantly increased the numbers of bands and music venues that will take part in the festival. The festival\u2019s long-term impact on Raleigh is still hard to quantify, but most believe its cultural impact will pay economic dividends. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24024,"featured_media":8454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[905,15,23],"tags":[891,906,907,882,908],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFor business owners and city politicians, Hopscotch has already become an irreplaceable fixture.<\/p>\n