The Big Dance Concert Series

To coincide with the NCAA Final Four in Atlanta this year, the NCAA threw a free concert series downtown at Centennial Olympic Park known as the Big Dance Concert Series. The «big dance» is the nickname of the NCAA tournament. The concerts took place over three days, Friday through Sunday. Each day had a different sponsor: AT&T on Friday, Coke Zero on Saturday, and Capital One on Sunday. Headlining each day, respectively, were the Zac Brown Band, MUSE, and the Dave Matthews Band. Other popular acts over the weekend included Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Flo Rida, Ludacris, and Sting.
With that kind of lineup for a free concert, I expected nothing less than a CF. We attended Bracket Town, which is located near the park, on Saturday afternoon. A Buick courtesy shuttle picked us up in Atlantic Station and gave us a free ride downtown. We were dropped off at the park. At the time of the drop-​off, Flo Rida was performing. The park was packed. The sidewalks were packed. I had no interest in trying to fight those crowds. I heard lines into the park for the Saturday afternoon lineup had upwards of 30-​minute waits.
After our visit to Bracket Town and dinner at CNN Center, one person in our group wanted to check out the MUSE performance at 8:30pm, so we went. Entry was into the park was surprisingly smooth and easy. I had a bag full of junk from Bracket Town. The guy who checked my bag wasn’t strict. He didn’t have a flashlight. I opened my bag and he peeked inside. There was a lot of stuff in there, but he didn’t move any of it. He waved me through. With the way he checked my bag, I could have snuck almost anything into the park.
Walking through the park, I was surprised how much free space there was. I was expecting it to be packed. Don’t get me wrong, there were still thousands of people there, most crowded around the stage. Googie Burger, a burger joint located at the park, must have been thrilled with the enormous amount of business the Final Four generated for them. There was some break dancing going on near the Olympic fountain rings. This was near the Powerade court where the Air Elite dunkers had performed earlier.
MUSE was already performing when we arrived on the lawn. Despite our arrival time, we still found relatively good, elevated spots on the lawn. The stage, lighting, sound system, and video boards were excellent, high quality. We could barely see the artists on stage, but we could easily see them on the three massive video screens. Whoever did the design and setup of the stage, speakers, and video boards did a great job because it utilized the lawn space well. No matter where you were on the lawn, you could enjoy the audio and visuals. The lawn itself had been trampled to death and was a bit soft, possibly from rain earlier in the week.
There was one hiccup during the concert. The band’s audio went out. It was almost reminiscent of the 2013 Super Bowl power outage in New Orleans. I’m not sure what happened, but MUSE was up and running again in 5 – 10 minutes. Not being a fan, I only recognized one of their songs («Uprising»). The crowd seemed happy and into the music. I smelled pot at one point.
Logistically speaking, I thought everything in the park was laid out and organized well. There was an adequate amount of restrooms, all portable toilets. The only problem was, many of them didn’t have doors with locks (or working locks). Folks using the restrooms were getting doors opened on them all the time, including myself. Good thing I’m a guy. After an entire day of concerts at the park, you can imagine what state these porta potties were in.
After the concert was over, there was a mass exodus to the nearby MARTA station (Dome/​GWCC/​Philips Arena/​CNN Center). With the Final Four and other events going on, we knew not to head towards that MARTA station, but instead headed north to the North Ave. station. For me, it was just like walking back to Georgia Tech from those free «On the Bricks» concerts that 99X used to throw years ago. The North Ave. MARTA station was quiet, but the northbound trains were expectedly packed.
Overall, the Big Dance Concert Series was an enjoyable time. It wasn’t as crazy, hectic, and disorganized as I thought it was going to be and you can’t beat the price of admission: free.