Midtown branding launch to coincide with music showcase

Graphics: facebook.com/MidtownMusicShowcase

We never thought Midtown would stick.

In fact, when we first used “Midtown” in a To-Do post back in early 2009, we expected people to poke fun at us for trying to name the aging corridor along College Avenue. It turns out people liked it.

“I am lovin’ the reference to F’ville’s ‘Midtown,'” wrote George Kuharick, a longtime Flyer commenter and current contributor. “I am so going to start using that.”

He wasn’t the only one.

A few years later, the businesses in Evelyn Hills Shopping Center renamed their annual Evelyn cHills event the Midtown Music Showcase.

This weekend, as a part of that event, the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce will introduce official branding for Midtown Fayetteville through the Midtown Window Sticker program, a localized community development project that aims to highlight all the area’s businesses and organizations.

According to Chamber officials, the area, which includes College Avenue from North Street to Millsap Road and extends west to Gregg Avenue, includes over 600 businesses.

Adam Putman of Fayetteville dunks Flyer co-founder Dustin Bartholomew in the volunteer dunking booth at the 2013 Midtown Music Showcase.

Todd Gill, Flyer staff

Chung Tan, director of economic development with the Chamber, said she hopes the project will help to fill a perceived gap between the downtown and uptown areas in Fayetteville at a time when College Avenue is in the middle of a major rebound.

“It starts with identification,” said Tan. “Which is why we chose window stickers for the kick-off. That way, everyone who goes into one of the businesses in that area will instantly know, ‘Hey, I’m in Midtown.'”

Tan said it’s the little local niches that make Fayetteville so unique, and highlighting those areas engages other parts of town which helps to strengthen the overall framework of the city.

“Midtown is a special place,” she said. “It’s where funky meets main street. You’ve got tattoo shops and locally owned restaurants all mixed in with big companies like the new CVS Pharmacy which is about to open.”

Tan said she hopes the project will encourage the local business owners to band together similar to how the organizations along Dickson Street and Block Avenue have created their own business associations.

Saturday’s Midtown Music Showcase runs from noon to 5 p.m., and will highlight local bands The Irie Lions and National Park Radio.

Aside from music, the event will raise funds for Appleseeds Inc. through a silent auction, dunk tank tickets, and a percentage of sales from a beer garden sponsored by Saddlebock Brewery. The non-profit, which promotes healthy living through garden-based education, recently collected its first harvest at the new teaching farm just north of Evelyn Hills Shopping Center.