When I asked Greg Costello, managing partner of C4 Live, how the Lake Olmstead Stadium overhaul was going, he told me to listen. Jackhammers. Jackhammers, bulldozers and lots of moving parts.
C4 Live is currently overhauling the dormant baseball stadium ahead of the entertainment company’s first event in the CSRA, XPR Augusta, slated for Masters week 2022.
XPR Augusta will be a week-long music and entertainment event with headlining performances from Jimmy Buffett, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton and more.
C4 conducted a job fair this past weekend to fill positions such as event coordinators, bartenders, food servers and more for the event.
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Costello said the event will be modeled after similar productions the company has produced in Super Bowl host cities around the United States.
“We go into the city and hire from within,” Costello said. “We look forward to hiring a lot of native Augustans. We have some excitement built up around this event but this is when we get down to the nitty-gritty of actually pulling off the event.”
Costello said the Lake Olmstead Stadium project is unique because so often, C4 organizes events on a flat piece of land with no water nearby or electricity already built in.
“We usually do this on just a plot of land. This is unique and we picked this spot because there is built-in infrastructure, which helps with the hospitality and production aspects,” Costello said.
MORE: C4 Live recruiting a local workforce for XPR Augusta
He said it takes the full support of the community to produce this type of event. Along the same lines, Costello said the entities that C4 has worked with in Augusta have been nothing but helpful the entire way.
Destination Augusta has partnered with C4 to establish a soul music and food festival in honor of the late James Brown. The inaugural event will take place in May 2022.
Bennish Brown, president of Destination Augusta, outlined plans for the festival, which will take place the weekend before James Brown’s birthday. According to Bennish Brown, the festival will be a multi-day event designed to appeal to local lovers of soul music and attract tourism to the Garden City.
MORE: Augusta to Launch Annual International Soul Festival
The event will be staged at the stadium. The company negotiated a 10-year operating agreement with the city of Augusta in 2020, and C4 Live will be responsible for the production and promotion of the festival.
C4 is investing $1.7 million into Lake Olmstead stadium to make improvements ahead of XPR Augusta in April.
“We’re doing demolition right now,” he said. “We’re making capital improvements here that will benefit the city whether an event happening here is a C4 event here or not.”
The Augusta Economic Development Authority is the actual lessee of Lake Olmstead Stadium from the City of Augusta, and C4 is subletting the stadium from AEDA for its events.
Cal Wray, director of AEDA, said that in turn, AEDA has helped C4 with logistics and connecting with the proper players in the area.
“We have been their guide to the community, ensuring they get in front of the right people to make the most of these shows and to maximize what their impact can be for this community,” Wray said.
Wray said he foresees C4 hosting “multiple events” throughout the year. After the soul festival, Wray said some permanent improvements will be made to the stadium to further prepare its event-hosting capabilities.
“C4 only has the stadium for 80 days a year, so the city still has 270 days a year to program events there,” Wray said. “There will be plenty of other opportunities for other entities to rent the stadium and have their own events. This opens up so many new possibilities.”
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Since the Augusta GreenJackets vacated Lake Olmstead Stadium, Wray said there has been only one event held in the stadium that lasted one day.
Costello said he and his partner, Michael Perry, have fallen in love with the city and what Augusta has to offer.
“Going from town to town like with shows you do for the Super Bowl, you don’t get to form these relationships and keep them throughout the years,” he said.
Costello said C4 has partnered with multiple charitable organizations such as Golden Harvest Food Bank, Jessye Norman School of the Arts and JAMP, the James Brown Academy of Musik Pupils to give back some of the profits to the community.
Making a good first impression on the community will be key, and Costello won’t have to wait much longer.
“Our goal is that people that make a visit to see our event have a great experience,” Costello said. “The best part is that this event will be here every year. Each year, it will just get more efficient and better for the visitors.”
Tyler Strong is the Business Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at tyler@theaugustapress.com
