Winterville’s Christmas concert — Strung Out Like The Lights At Christmas — will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5 at the Marigold Auditorium. Doors will open at 6 p.m. and free parking is available.
An old Winterville tradition turns new this holiday season, as the city revives its annual Christmas concert — Strung Out Like The Lights At Christmas — at the newly renovated Marigold Auditorium.
The Dec. 5 event, which hasn’t been held since 2017, will feature six bands and benefit Athens Area Homeless Shelter and Nuci’s Space.
“For a lot of people, this is their Christmas party or their end-of-year party to see old friends,” Winterville Mayor Dodd Ferrelle said. “So, that’s what I hope to revive and also have all those old friends gather back together once a year to do something good for somebody else in the community that needs help.”
Five Eight will headline the concert, while Grassland, Mary & The Hot Hotty-Hots, Dodd Ferrelle & The Wintervillians, Kate Morrissey and Deja Vu will each have 30-minute performances.
Ferrelle, who planned and will perform at the concert, had the idea for an annual Christmas concert in 2008, when the Great Recession took a toll on families. As a musician, he found music to be the perfect solution.
“It was a time where people were hurt more than usual, and I wanted to do something to help,” Ferrelle said. “I knew that I could get a lot of buddies and musician friends to perform together and really have a community event where there is very little separation between performer and community.”
Ferrelle’s band, Dodd Ferrelle and the WinterVillains, and several other local bands performed that year to raise money for the Empty Stocking Fund, an organization providing holiday gifts to families in need.
But after 10 years of the event, it was time for a change.
“It got tricky because we wanted to have the event somewhere, but we didn’t have the Marigold Auditorium renovated yet,” Ferrelle said. “And that’s where I really wanted it to land.”
The Marigold Auditorium has since undergone $58,000 renovations, opening the door to restart the event. Ferrelle also felt it was the right time to choose two new organizations to support.
“We've got a beautiful venue for this community for a long time to come to do things like this,” Ferrelle said.
Nuci’s Space was the first organization to come to mind, given its mission to support mental health, especially among musicians.
“Our mission is suicide prevention,” said Debbie Watson, executive director of Nuci’s Space. “Now, the way we do that is so unique — we focus on the music and arts community. But it’s really just about having support, giving hope, making sure that people know that they're not alone.”
Any fundraising opportunity for Nuci’s Space makes a huge impact, but this one is especially meaningful for Watson since her daughter Sam Watson is the Winterville Library Branch Manager.
“There's still a lot of people in our community — in Winterville — that may not be familiar with Nuci’s Space and our programs and services,” Debbie Watson said. “So, any chance that we can get to have some publicity — just getting people to know about us and educating the community on what we do.”
Athens Area Homeless Shelter quickly became another organization Ferrelle wanted to support.
“Just from the work I’ve done with the city and kind of the experience I’ve had in working with (Athens Area Homeless Shelter) and knowing the situation of families that are struggling, but trying to get ahead and just need a little bit of extra help,” he said. “And it’s just a perfect situation for us to help those folks.”