Page 38 - The Peorian, Vol 3 Issue 2

The Future
NEW EVENT CENTER
Putting local talent in the ‘Limelight’
By Tim Rosenberger
T he Civic Center is capable
of housing thousands
of people for shows
and concerts. If someone has
a popular act and is coming
to Peoria, the Civic Center is
probably the place to go.
For those smaller bands and
groups who cannot pull huge
crowds of 2,000 or more, there is
a new venue to help fill the void.
A little over a year-and-a-half-
ago, friends and fellow musicians
Danny Cash (a bassist), Rick
Owens (a guitarist) and Devin
Birch (a drummer) began work
on bringing a mid-sized venue to
the Peoria area.
“We built the place for
concerts,” Birch, co-owner and
manager of the venue, said.
“That’s the first thing we did.
We wanted to have a club-size
venue for the Peoria market,
which we felt was lacking. One
that was better than just grabbing
an exhibit hall space at the Civic
Center.”
What the three ended up with
is a 20,000 square-foot facility
called Limelight Eventplex,
located at 8102 N. University St.
The building can hold more than
1,500 people, has a 200 capacity
full-service bar where you first
enter and is flexible to different
types of shows.
The stage, 36 feet wide and 32
feet deep, is a semi-permanent
installation that can have its
configuration changed when
needed. The majority of the
events will be standing room
only but tables of eight or so can
be set up if required, and the
owners are open to any genre of
music.
“We know if we want to be
successful with what we’re doing
here, we have to be open to all
different types of genres from
Americana to jazz to rock to
country and [we also have to]
spread those out,” Birch said.
“We don’t want to do six country
shows in one month. It’s just
not a good business model for
this area and the market and the
demographic that we have.”
One of the big draws of the
venue will be the national bands
it will host. Birch says there are
only a small handful of national
groups that come to Peoria, and
those that do usually go to the
Civic Center, which is not always
ideal for national bands.
Some groups simply do not
have the money or the popularity
to bring in the big crowds of the
Civic Center. At the same time,
they may not be appropriate for
small venues like a bar, which
will probably only hold 300 to
500 people. Those middle-ground
shows are the perfect ones for
Limelight.
Birch and the other co-owners
knew the business could not
sustain itself by exclusively doing
national shows.
38 thePeorian.com