Snellville's 'Sizzlin' Summer' Kicks Off

Snellville is gearing up for its "Sizzlin' Summer Weekend" that begins today, running June 17-18.

The Snellville Tourism and Trade Association will be having an array of activities, including:

• Live on the Lawn, featuring a benefit concert by Banks & Shane for Dream House for Medically Fragile Children, is 6 p.m. - 10 p.m. on June 17 adjacent to City Hall. Gwinnett School of Rock will also perform. The $5 admission fee goes to Dream House.
• Run of the Ville Half Marathon, which is part of the Georgia Cup running series, is 6:30 a.m. - 11 a.m., June 18 at Briscoe Park.
• Grill'n on the Green, a music and food fesitval featuring four bands, 3 p.m. - 10 p.m. on June 18. Rock 100.5 is hosting the event, which will be on the town green next to City Hall.

In addition to these main events, the Snellville Farmers' Market will also be going on Saturday, 8 a.m. - noon, and the public will also get a chance to test drive a Ford Focus as part of 'Sizzlin' Summer Weekend.' Primary parking for most festivities is at the City Hall.

Joe Burnett, executive director of the tourism group, said the event has been time-consuming, but he's hoping it all turns out well.

"We are a new organization, so just about everything we do is a new event," he said, with new-event challenges.

In an event like this, there are a number of things Burnett has to keep up with: concert particulars, crowd control, alcohol consumption, timing of events, volunteer and staff management, set-up, clean up, etc. "Planning and execution has been going for months," he said.

Shane Aubrey, owner of USA Entertainment -- the special events company leading some of the activities, agreed that it has been challenging putting the weekend event on. 

"It's hard to sell sponsorships to a first-time event, so obviously the first year these kind of events are lucky if they break even or make money," Aubrey said.

Still representatives from the Dream House, who will benefit from the concert put on Friday, are glad to be a part of the festivities. Lauri Wood, a spokewoman for the organization, said that there are still people who are not aware of what Dream House does, so she hopes the events bring more exposure to their work.

"Our goal is to certainly let people know we exist," and to raise money, she said.

The organization has a transition home for children who are considerered medically fragile, and helps reunite families of these children and provide them with much-needed resources, among other things. "It's a lot less to have these kids in our homes than to have them in the hospital," Woods added.

Organizers said this kind of goodwill for the community and family fun is what they're after, including making more of a name for Snellville.

"Making it a big deal, putting all these together in a weekend to kick off the summer, we hope that we could attract attention (of) folks that probably wouldn't have paid attention if we weren't doing something like this," Burnett said.

Aubrey was hopeful that there would be a big turnout.

"It's going to be fun, it's going to be good," he said, "and I just hope that the sun isn't going to be too intense.

Next year organizers don't know if they will have the same events, but, for now, the organizers are gearing up to wind down.

"When you get into the planning of events, you just look forward to them being over," Burnett said. "We're just going to see how it goes."