Downtown Redevelopment Authority handing off local events to other organizations

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Changes are coming to downtown Bowling Green and some events that call that downtown area home, with plans for the Downtown Redevelopment Authority to dissolve.

They are now passing on some of their events to other entities within the community. With the city taking on more responsibility over the years, they were able to concentrate more on the events that brought many residents to downtown Bowling Green.

“The city became more involved in the downtown, which has been wonderful for downtown businesses. And so, the the need was not, is great for the business part of the organization. So we concentrated more on the free events, which were the concerts in the park and Winter Fest,” said Susan Hoechner, chairman of the Downtown Redevelopment Authority.

One of those events, WinterFest, will be taken over by the Warren County Public Library. The concert series, which is hosted at The Capitol, has offered great free music during some of the colder months of the year. The library says they’re honored to be taking over this event.

“It’s a great honor. I mean, gosh, 49 years of serving this community with equitable entertainment, and music has really brought the Bowling Green music community together. They’ve really set a standard. They’ve really let us know that music is really important to Warren County and to Bowling Green. The residents turn out every single year for the Concerts in the Park series, in the WinterFest series, and so it’s our honor that they trust us to continue on that tradition,” said Laura Beth Fox-Ezell, co-director for the Warren County Public Library.

Concerts in the Park will also be switching hands from the DRA to SKYPAC. The community favorite concert series provides good times during some of the warmer months of the year. And while a new face might be behind the series, SKYPAC says they will remain the same as it has been.

“Our intention is to keep it the same. If it’s not broken, there’s nothing to fix. But, inevitably, there will be something that is probably a bit different just by virtue of the fact that we’re not the DRA. But our intention certainly isn’t to change anything at this point,” said President and CEO of SKYPAC Jeff Reed.

WinterFest is set to kick off in just a few short months.