Last Thursday night. Latitude 35.
“If you come to this party, I guarantee you’ll be dancing at the end of the night.” That’s what Gay Lyons told me the week before the second annual Dogwood After Dark party, an event that kicks off the Dogwood Arts Festival. I figured Gay should know. She was the chair of the soiree, which was held this year at Latitude 35 on Market Square. I think the picture above shows that she is a woman you can trust!
The two-story restaurant was divided into three areas where performers alternated throughout the evening. The finale that got everyone on the downstairs dance floor was a band called Justin Haynes and Pulse. Talk about fun!
Here are a few photos of the evening’s festivities.
These lovely greeters met us at the door. From left: Erin Donovan of WBIR-TV, Nita Dunn and Red Hickey of WDVX radio.
Hey, that hussie is showing her petticoat to my husband!
Erin Donovan and Alan Carmichael
Angie Wilson and Dino Cartwright outside the party
Gay Lyons and Dennis Perkins, who did a great job being in charge of the party's entertainment
From left: Melynda Whetsel, Katie Powell, Amy Styles, Kim Henry and Jennifer Holder
From left: Ted Smith, David Butler, Mary Ellen Brewington and Craig Shelton
Dawn Ford and Eddie Mannis
From left: Joe Graves, Janet Testerman and Allyn Purvis Schwartz
Jimmy Buckner, one of the owners of Latitude 35
Lisa Sorensen and Scott Schimmel, the owners of Bliss on Market Square
Muffet Buckner and David Purvis
Mayoral candidate Madeline Rogero, left, and Sylvia Peters
Don and Karen Sproles, owners of The Lunch Box
Shelba Murphy, left, and Tami Hartmann of Moxley Carmichael
Rick Emmett, left, and Bill Lyons, both of the city of Knoxville
Lynda Evans, left, of Dogwood Arts Festival, and Pamela and John Henry. He's a well-known sculptor from Chattanooga.
Alan Carmichael, left, with Pat and Tom Bright, the owners of Prism Pool
Ha! Bob Whetsel of the city of Knoxville
Dawn Ford and Judith Foltz. (I wonder what they are saying!)
From left: Jennifer Holder, Maureen Bosch and Pamela Chips
From left: Joe Graves, Tami and Bruce Hartmann, Janet Testerman
Joe Dickey and Susan Ridgell, owners of Knox ivi
Nancy Brennan Strange, who performed a set of Patsy Cline songs
Cruz Contreras and Erick Baker performed an Everly Brothers set.
Todd Steed performed his own Knoxville songs.
This was an awesome idea for a music-filled night: Your $75 ticket got you two free drinks. Guitar pics were used instead of tickets to “pay” for the drinks. Cute.
Love!
Actually, the pics got you a choice of beer or wine. And this is my only complaint of the night. The only white wine you could get for your $75 admission was some awful chardonnay. Folks, please! The day when you could get by with making chardonnay your only white wine choice are long gone. Years ago the New York Times said the “in” wine in New York had become “ABC: Anything But Chardonnay.” I know we are behind the times here, but come on! Otherwise, a great night!
Yuck.
I came in all the way from Hollywood for the party! It was a blast and I hope they continue to do a kick off party in the same style next year!
What a fantastic kick-off to one of the prettiest months in Knoxville. Gay and committee did a great job getting everyone’s groove on for the best festival in the South!
Thanks for the great review, Cynthia! We had as much fun planning the party as we had AT the party! I am already accepting new and innovative auction ideas for next year! (Openly begging …)
Thanks everybody for making it a great party to begin a terrific event like Dogwood Arts Festival! Love my dogwoods!
Thanks for your comments Karen, Mary Ellen and Allyn. I agree the folks who worked on this did a fantastic job. The Dogwood Arts Festival is becoming what I always hoped it would be. The folks on the staff – and the volunteers – deserve great credit for really raising the bar on the festival.
Big shout out to a great event planning team–it takes a lot of talented, hard-working people and some very detailed To Do lists to pull together an event like this. Many thanks to those who bought a ticket and came out to have fun & support the Festival. And, Mox, I DID offer to buy you some pinot grigio!
I know you did offer to do that, Gay. And I appreciate it. But it shouldn’t have been necessary to do that. I think everyone should have had a choice of a white wine other than that bad chardonnay. I mean tickets were $75. But, again, it’s a small complaint compared to the fact that everything else was awesome.
It is not chardonnay as a class, but the down under stuff is, umm, really cheap wine and tastes like it.
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