Area residents can vote in neighboring county
Farragut area residents can have a say in what entertainment is available, even in a neighboring county.
Loudon Alive, a non-profit 501(c) organization, is competing for a grant to bring a series of concerts to City of Loudon’s Tate & Lyle Performing Arts Amphitheater in Loudon Municipal Park, 1470 Roberson Spring Road, that would begin in 2026.
To win the grant, it is asking for area residents to vote for Loudon.
Tammy Roberts, Loudon Alive board member, said Loudon Alive, whose purpose is to “Make Loudon a better place to work, live and play,” applied for the grant from the Levitt Foundation, which is giving away the multi-series music grant for amphitheaters in rural areas that amounts to about $120,000 over three years — up to $40,000 per year.
“It’s perfect,” she said about the amphitheater. It’s so under-utilized.
“If you get the grant, it will provide a multi-series music event at the amphitheater in Loudon,” she said. “We’re in competition with eight other cities, and six will win.
“And, the way we’re going to win is by voting in a public voting process by texting “Loudon” to 877-409-5525.
Voting opens 1 p.m. EST, Friday, Sept. 5, and ends 8 p.m., Monday, Sept. 15.
“Make sure they get an acknowledgement that they received your text because that’s what you’ll get,” Roberts said. “’Some people,’ the Levitt Foundation said, ‘will spell it wrong, will have something in there, and we’ll never get it,’ and a vote they don’t get is a vote we don’t have, so make sure they get this message back that says they received your text.”
She said the voting process is the final stage of the grant process.
The grant is supported by a “joint partnership between the Levitt Foundation, a national social impact funder at the intersection of music, public space and community building that supports the largest free outdoor concert series in America, and the Tennessee Entertainment Commission with support from Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development and Tennessee Department of Tourism Development.
“The story behind it is Mortimer Levitt was a poor kid in New York City, whose father was a vendor at Coney Island,” Roberts said. “His family couldn’t afford a ticket for him to get in and listen to the concerts.”
Later, when Levitt grew up, he owned multiple custom suit shops. When he retired and sold the shops, he established the Levitt Foundation, for which he donated the shops’ proceeds, $160 million, “so he could provide access to free concerts for those who could not afford their own ticket,” she said.
