NEWBERRY — Last year the Newberry Downtown Development Association brought a new festival Downtown called Groove N’ Brew, and the festival will return this Saturday with more beer, food and fun for all.
The festival will take place from 1-10 p.m. and will be from the Mower Building down to College Street, what Aimee Talbot, festival chair and vice-president of NDDA called the east end of Main Street.
“We want to show a little love to the east side of Main Street, because so often all of the festivals are held down at the Square in front of the Opera House. What NDDA is all about is bringing economic development Downtown, and part of our vision is to bring more love, energy and focus to the east side of Main Street,” she said.
Chief Roy McClurkin said that Main Street will be closed from Holman Street all the way to College Street, and all the side streets from there, starting at 9:30 a.m.
As previously mentioned, this is the second annual, last year’s Groove N’ Brew was very successful, according to Talbot. She said 1,500 people came out, with the threat of horrible weather.
“It was showing a blizzard in April in South Carolina a week out, a day out they were predicting horrible rain all day,” she said.
However, the rain held out, and she said 1,500 people had a fantastic time.
“We learned a lot through that experience, and now we will have Groove N’ Brew Two even better,” Talbot said.
So let’s dive into some details, Talbot said they are excited to have 15 food trucks this year, which is nearly double compared to last year.
The food trucks will include, La Cochinita, Pizza for Pyros, The Wurst Wagon, The Donut Guy, Pawleys Front Porch, Mike’s Italian Ice, TKO Concessions and BBQ, Carolina Cookin’, The Fryy, Gripps Grills, Jones-Zee Mobile Concession, BBQ Bus, Tru Jerk Jamaica and Palmetto Pucker.
This year’s food options include a wide variety of flavors, and offers something for almost everyone’s taste. A few highlights from Talbot include the wood burning oven pizza from Pizza for Pyros; Mexican BBQ from La Cochinita; the crazy doughnut combinations from Crazy Donuts; the pineapple bowls; hollowed out with stir fried rice and your choice of toppings from The Fryy; returning favorite Gripps Grills; and ox tails, jerk chicken from Tru Jerk Jamaica.
As well as these options, the businesses in the festival areas on Main Street that serve food, Steelhorse Smokehouse, Half Full and The Corner Scoop, will also have food options.
Moving on to the craft beer, all the craft beer will be South Carolina craft beer, there will be 20 beers from 10 brewers from throughout the state. One of which, back by popular demand, is River Rat Brewery.
“We think South Carolina has great craft beer,” Talbot said.
This year, Talbot said they are doing something different and that is beer floats. With a scoop of ice cream from The Corner Scoops, folks will be able to turn their craft beer into a float. Two of which Talbot recommends will be the Chocolate Deluxe Stoute from Lo-Fi and the World Count White Chocolate Mocha Blonde Stoute from Legal Remedy. These beers will be located at the beer tent closest to The Corner Scoop.
For the complete list of craft beers, visit newberrygroovenbrew.com/beer-food. There will also be domestic beers, and a hard cider. Half Full will also have wine for sale.
While attendees get a beer and some food, they will also get to hear the free concert in Astwood Park where the band, Hijacked will perform. Talbot said this is a band out of Columbia and they will be playing music from the 70s and 80s. The outdoor stage will also karaoke, during the first part of the days they will have two karaoke offs, the winners from those two rounds will compete and the winner will get to jam out on stage with Hijacked, but don’t worry if you don’t win the first time, there will be another karaoke off in the later half of the evening.
There will also be a costume contest from 4:30-5 p.m. So make sure to wear your best 70s and 80s attire.
There will also be plenty to do while walking downtown besides food and beer. You can have a photo opportunity with a tie-dyed Volkswagon Beetle, which will also serve as a fundraising tool, with guests able to put money in the car to support NDDA. The Newberry Arts Center will also have their “photo booths” again, the “Miami Vice” booth will be back, and this year “Saturday Night Fever” will make its debut.
Speaking of the Newberry Arts Center, this year there will be Groove N’ Brew t-shirts for sale at $20, and if you like you can get it tie-dyed for five dollars at the Arts Center.
There will also be outdoor games, including giant inflatable Twister and giant inflatable dodge ball, among others.
While you can purchase food directly from the vendors, in order to buy beer or play the games, you will need tokens. For the beer, you will need to buy a wristband, which will come with an official Groove N’ Brew Cup (while supplies last). After that, beers are five dollars and wine is $10.
The games will be $2.50, per game. When you get to the festival, and buy your wristband, that is when you can purchase the tokens.
Then, starting at 5:30 p.m. will be Rock the Ritz, with J-E-T, out of Greenville, they will play 70s and 80s funk. Then at 7:30 p.m., On The Border, the ultimate Eagles Tribute Band. Talbot said if you love the Eagles, you’ll love On the Border. Tickets are $30, and can be purchased via the Newberry Opera House, with a link provided through newberrygroovenbrew.com.
Groove N’ Brew is the NDDA’s biggest fundraising event, all of the proceeds will go toward helping the NDDA improve Downtown Newberry. For example, the NDDA held FastTrac last year, a 10 week mini business school for entrepreneurs.
“We hope to use the funds raised from Groove N’ Brew to put on fall 2019 FastTrac,” Talbot said.
Another NDDA initiative is #NEWberry, which stands for Newberry Empowering Women. Which celebrates the fact so many downtown businesses are owned by women, and have women in management positions. The NDDA is highlighting this in a variety of media campaigns.
These are just two of the many initiatives the NDDA is working on, and with Groove N’ Brew, they can continue to do so.
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