A press conference was held at the Tom Norton City Pier to announce "Take Me to the River part two," the second annual free music event presented by the Narrows Center for the Arts. Patrick Norton, Executive Director of the Narrows Center, highlighted the event's headliners: the Ryan Montbleau Band, 2025 Blues Grammy Award winner Ruthie Foster, and Eddie 9V. He detailed logistics, including food trucks, beverages from Canned Heat and Primo, and transportation options like the MBTA station, a city trolley, and boat docking at the pier. Last year's event drew nearly 1,000 attendees, with 70% coming from outside Fall River, representing all six New England states. Mayor Paul Coogan expressed the city's support, encouraging residents and visitors to enjoy the pier, scenery, music, and food, emphasizing the event's role in showcasing the positive aspects of Fall River. Deborah Grimes from Mechanics Cooperative Bank, the presenting sponsor for the second consecutive year, spoke about the bank's pride in partnering with the city and the Narrows to bring people together through music and highlight Fall River's waterfront. Patrick Norton also noted the sentimental value of the pier being named after his father, Tom Norton. Discussions also touched on the event's origins, with the Narrows Center having hosted over a hundred outdoor concerts, finding the Tom Norton City Pier to be an ideal location. Future growth was mentioned, with potential expansion to include Bicentennial Park and the anticipation of more restaurants and amenities transforming the waterfront area in the coming year.
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Thanks everybody for coming out on a beautiful Wednesday morning. Welcome to the Tom Norton City Pier. My name is Patrick Norton. I'm the executive director of the Narrow Center for the Arts and we are super excited to present Take Me to the River part two. This is the second year we've done this and uh we're calling it the feel-good event of the century. Might be an exaggeration,
0:18but that's that was our marketing plan at the Narrows. We believe in that. It's a free event. We have three worldclass bands here. Ryan Mount Blue Ryan Mount Blue Band is the headliner. Uh 2025 Blues Grammy Award winner Ruthie Foster and our good friend Eddie 9V. Eddie 9V is a guitar player who's made a lot of noise the last year. He just got signed to Dan Arback from the Black Keys uh
0:43record label. So it's going to be a fun event. We've got Canned Heat serving beverages. We've got Primo serving beverages. We've got a variety of food trucks. And we know we're kind of in somewhat of a construction zone here on Route 79, but we've got some great parking options and some great transportation options I just want to talk to every about real quick. First of all, you can get here from the MBTA
1:04station. Anybody along that MBTA line, it's a quick 5minute walk from here.
1:09We've also have uh the city trolley which will be transporting people from the MBTA lot from the Narrows lot and also from the lot on Ferry Street. And then we're also encouraging voters to pull up to the pier as well. There's some uh docking that you can pull up. I think there's about 15 dock uh locations right up against the pier. And then there's also some a lot of places in the
1:30water that people can pull up their boat and check out the music. Uh you know these things this is it's a free event but it costs money obviously quite a bit of money to put this event on. And we get a lot of support from the city and I want to introduce uh my good friend Mayor Paul Coogan.
1:48Thank you, Pat. Uh, again, this Take Me to the River Festival, we were down here last year. It was very special, and I believe it's going to be bigger and better than ever. We encourage people to come out, enjoy the pier, enjoy the scenery, listen to some great music, grab a bite to eat, and come down and participate in one of the real key events going on in the city of For this
2:07summer. Uh, the more people we get down here, the more people that are exposed to all the positive things in our city, the better it is for everybody. And I want to thank Pat and the team at the Narrows for putting this together. It's always a top shelf event and we really, really want people to show up that day.
2:24So, we'll see you down on the pier for the Take Me to the River Festival.
2:27Thanks Pat.
2:28Thanks, Paul. And just one more thing, you know, this event is a really great way to showcase the Forville Waterfront.
2:35Two things happen here. It's a great event for the community. A lot of local people can come down to the event and experience high quality, you know, culture and music for free. But also Whip the Narrows is known for bringing a lot of people from outside of Fall River into this event. And last year we figured about 70% of the people who attended the event came from outside the city of Fall River. All six New England
2:56states were represented. So it's like a it's an economic event too where it brings people from all over to the city of Fall River. And as Paul said, Forever has been in the news lately where a lot of people see for as a great place to live. And these kind of events help in, you know, enrich the community and make for a better place to live. As I said earlier, these events aren't free. They
3:16cost a lot of money to run. And Mechanics Bank has been our sp our presenting sponsor the last two years.
3:24And I'd like to bring Deb Grimes from Mechanics Bank to say a few words.
3:30Thank you very much, Pat. Yes, my name is Deborah Grimes and I'm with Mechanics Cooperative Bank. We are super excited to be the presenting sponsor for the second year in a row. Take Us to the River is a wonderful community event and we're so proud to partner with not only the city of Fall River but with Narrows themselves. Music brings people together and that's exactly the purpose that
3:51we're trying to accomplish here. Fall River is a great place to be and we want to shine and definitely highlight all of these wonderful things that we have in place and most importantly this gorgeous waterfront. So hopefully you're all able to join us. We're excited to see you all come up and uh and join us. We'll have a tent there and we'd like to talk with you and and learn a little bit about you
4:12as well. So again, thank you so much Pat and thank you Mayor Coogan for coordinating this wonderful event. Thank you.
4:21Well, thanks everybody. Thanks for coming out. Hey Jared, you want to get the little sign? We're going to do a little We got out a little sign. We want to do a quick photo op. Anybody got any questions?
4:31I guess start off. Tell me a bit about last year as well, how this event got started, how however ended up becoming what it is now.
4:39We have done a we've probably done a hundred uh outdoor concerts over the last 24 years, the Narrows, um in different parts of the city, and we really landed upon this place last year.
4:51We loved it. We think it's the nicest place in the city. You know, I'm a little bit biased. I I got to say uh I'm happy the the pier is actually named after my dad, so there's like a sentimental piece to it too as well. But last year we had close to a thousand people and we're expecting that as long as we get a good weather day, we're expecting that many people again.
5:11How do you coordinate with the uh with the musicians as well?
5:14Well, that's what we do at the Narrows.
5:15We do a 100 concerts a year. We got a lot of contacts and we've all the acts that we've had. Ryan Montlau has been a sellout at the Narrows. Ruthie has been a sellout and Eddie NV someone we've been cultivating over the last few years. So, it's something that we're really confident about. And again, I think regardless of what kind of music you like, we've got a high quality lineup and it's something very
5:33familyfriendly. People can bring their kids and uh should be great.
5:41Uh well, you know, we I think we're going to keep it right now for the next few years, but there is another park down there, Bsentennial Park. You know, I don't know if me and Paul will be around that long. We'll need a we'll need a we'll need a few extra sponsors to make all that happen, but I could see this event growing and adding Bsentennial Park and it's a short walk
6:00from Bsentennial Park um to the for the Tom Norton City Pier and making that work. So, we'll see. I think this whole area is is about to transform the next year. So, there's going to be more restaurants, more places to eat and drink. You know, maybe there'll be after parties and late night raves before we're all said and done with this thing, Paul. I don't know. All right. Anyway,
6:20that's too much information, I guess.