DownTown Live to celebrate holiday weekend with 'American Night'

Jul. 1—The seventh week and second half of DownTown Live's inaugural season will continue tonight at 6 p.m. at the RiverPark Center.

The 21-and-over entertainment series will honor the Independence Day weekend under the theme "American Night," which is to include the holiday staples such as hot dogs, beer and more.

The event's normal fare of its Community Jukebox initiative will take place from 6-11 p.m. and a corn hole tournament starting at 9 p.m. on the Truist Plaza.

The first place winner will receive $200, while second and third place winners will receive gift cards from local businesses and tickets to a RiverPark Center show.

Silent Disco will also make its return to the Jody Berry Theatre from 7-11 p.m.

Regarding the night's theme, the lobby will host a "Proud to be American" game show at 8:30 p.m. hosted by Eyewitness News' Joe Bird, where the first place winner will win a three day/two night stay in a deluxe cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains courtesy of American Patriot Getaways.

Registration for the game show begins at 7:30 p.m. and four contestants will be selected at random to participate, according to Grae Greer, director of marketing at the RiverPark Center.

"All the questions come from the citizenship test, so study up," she said.

The GhostLight Lounge — the entertainment bar attached to RiverPark Center's Atmos Courtyard — will open at 6 p.m. and will continue to host karaoke for attendees starting at 8:30 p.m.

Tonight's featured entertainment will be singer-songwriter and producer Clint Campbell performing from 6-8 p.m. in the Atmos Courtyard, who is looking forward to participating in the event's debut year.

"It's truly exciting," he said. "It's something that hopefully will be going on for a long time. It's a new age for downtown Owensboro .... I'm excited for what all's to come and to be a part of that is an honor."

Campbell said that the crowd can expect to have some fun when watching his diverse set.

"I do a mixture of acoustic stuff and then I'll do some looping songs, where I'll build upon one sound or one rhythm and really get a full band feel going," Campbell said. "I'll do that from anything from The Eagles to Maroon 5 — so, I'm all over the place."

"Clint Campbell has been someone I've been wanting to work with for a while now," Greer said. "He has a super unique style and hits (you) with some fantastic throwbacks that we all love."

Campbell said that aspect of live looping — which is the process of creating and using looped sounds that are recorded on-the-spot live during a performance — is like "playing with fire" but is all worth it.

"Sometimes, you'll get into it and get a groove going and it'll feel just right and you'll ride that through the whole song," he said. "And then other times, you get a bit of a rockier start and you've got to get it right at the very beginning or else it's going to be wrong the whole song. So there's a little bit of pressure in the beginning to get that right, but it's really fun and the results are kind of that 'wow' effect; people really like it and it's really fun to watch someone build it after they've practiced and gotten the technique down."

He hopes that he will be able to entertain and motivate the audience that stop by and watch his set.

"My goal is to inspire people to try new things and to maybe witness something that they haven't seen before and to help them realize that there's more out there than what we think," Campbell said. "(I also want) to give people an opportunity to take a deep breath from life to enjoy themselves."

Greer has been happy with the result of DownTown Live's first season and how the event has been bringing new faces out to the facility and the area.

"My favorite thing so far about DownTown Live thus far has been the community impact," she said. "We've had folks who have never stepped foot in the (RiverPark Center) before coming out to ride the mechanical bull, see local films in Cannon Hall, jam out to music in the Atmos Courtyard and compete with their friends in the Wii dance challenges and corn hole tournaments. It's been a beautiful thing to watch our community venture out and try something new."

For more information, visit riverparkcenter.org/downtownlive or facebook.com/RiverParkCenter.