The Park at Eastern Wharf announced a full itinerary of 2022 fall happenings including outdoor festivals, holiday activities and seasonal events along with their continued monthly concert series. The park is located along the Savannah River in the Eastern Wharf District.
“The general objective for the park is to provide community-based events across the year. We’ve had several outside organizations rent the park for their own festivals. We had Blues, Brews, BBQ & Bourbon a couple of weekends ago. Those events are going to continue as the development grows and more and more things come along. This latest group of events is sort of our ramp-up as we continue to grow. And fall, as you know, is a key season in Savannah with a lot going on. So we’re excited to be part of that now,” said Kayne Lanahan, the executive director of program management for the park.
The next event at the park, the Fall Fest at Eastern Wharf, takes place Thursday, Nov. 10, to celebrate the official kickoff of Phase II development at the Eastern Wharf District with live music and food trucks including Bow Tie BBQ, Ark Royal and Starship Ice Cream. There will also be fall face painting by Mamie Ruth and a vintage photo booth ran by Rob Oldham. Live musical acts Intracoastal Playboys and A Nickel Bag of Funk are scheduled to perform at the festival, which runs from 6-9 p.m.
“We want to encourage people to come down to the riverfront and get to know the park and enjoy it and do some community events that celebrate fall in Savannah. We’re lucky that fall for us extends through the end of the year in most cases. So we just think it’s a great time of year to be outside and introduce people to the park and have some fun,” said Lanahan. “For the Fall Festival, we’re just ramping up what we’ve been calling our monthly concert series and turning it into a little bit bigger event. We’re going to have it a little bit more decorated with lots of lighting, just a really fun fall celebration,” she continued.
Phase II of the Eastern Wharf District consists of multiple additions of restaurants, rentals and shops.
“The developers just broke ground on a new rental building called Pilot and Park a few weeks ago. We’ve also got 5 or 6, possibly even more retail and food and beverage entities that are in the process of building out and coming online in the next couple of months. Squirrel’s Pizza is one of those. Their second location is very close to being finished. Ōtium Wellness Studio is also opening a second location. So we’re at that point, where the first phase of The Thompson and Riverworks and the townhouses are complete, and phase II is gearing up,” said Lanahan.
Along with Ōtium Wellness Studio and Squirrel’s Pizza, the retail store Syd Nichole will also be added to the Eastern Wharf District. These are just a few of the number of additions that are to come in phase II.
“I know Syd Nichole has announced, which is a flower and fashion brand. They’re a really interesting retail shop that has a combination of fashion and light and fresh flowers. They’re going to be doing flower workshops in the park. It could be anything from how to build a holiday wreath to creating your own spring bouquets. A lot of these retail and food and beverage businesses are things that we think will transition well from having a brick-and-mortar space on site and then being able to bring things out into the park, whether it’s classes or demonstrations or fun events,” said Lanahan.
Lanahan also is a founder of the Savannah Stopover Music Festival and thus has a lot of relationships with the food trucks in town. The park also works through Savannah Food Truck Force, which helps people and entities in town book food trucks. These relationships have allowed the park and the Eastern Wharf District to have a variety of food trucks and vendors.
“Latin Chicks are a good example. They’re a great food truck. They’re also going to be opening a permanent location at Eastern Wharf. I think we hope in 2023 to do some more Latin-themed events in the park and bring them into that mix,” she said.
The most recent event at the park was the inaugural Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Colors of Asia Festival, which took place Saturday, Nov. 5 from 12-4 p.m. The festivities kicked off with a traditional Dragon Dance and included demonstrations, cultural musical performances, and dances.
“That came about through the mayor’s new (AAPI) task force project. It was a collaborative event with the Asian American Pacific Islander community in Savannah. And while they’ve done a few events in the past, I think this is the first one that sort of involved the city as the muscle behind helping this cultural event grow for this community. So it’s all been organized by them through their task force. It was a wide range of Asian culture, from Indian to Filipino, to Thai to Chinese to Japanese,” said Lanahan.
All of the events listed on The Park at Eastern Wharf’s fall itinerary will be free to the public. Future events and event costs will be dictated on a case-by-case basis.
“I think it’s going to be event by event. So if an outside organization comes in, it’s going to be their prerogative whether their event is a ticketed event or a community free event. For the events that we’re putting on, for now, we anticipate keeping those free,” said Lanahan.
Even in its early stages, the park was brimming with opportunity and inquiries, and as the year pulls to an end The Park at Eastern Wharf is already prepping for 2023.
“I think everyone who comes to the park enjoys it. It’s a wonderful space right on the river, there’s really nothing like it. So everyone that once they come, they love it. We’re already getting a lot of inquiries for 2023, in terms of people, whether it’s holding a small to midsize corporate event, whether it’s a new organization looking to hold a new event, or an existing organization that might be interested in trying a new location,” said Lanahan.
For more information on events, visit theparkateasternwharf.com
For general information on experiencing the park, visit @theparkateasternwharf on Instagram
