Nearly two years after the City of Jacksonville closed it off for construction, the stretch of the Northbank Riverwalk behind the Jacksonville Center for Performing Arts has transformed into the Riverfront Music Garden.
City officials, community stakeholders and residents came out to celebrate the official grand opening of this new public park on Wednesday, May 13. As he introduced Mayor Donna Deegan during the Wednesday morning ribbon-cutting ceremony, City of Jacksonville Director of Parks, Recreation and Community Services Darryl Joseph spoke of what he called the “power of parks.”
“Our mayor understands the power of parks,” Joseph said. “How well-planned parks, well-maintained parks and activated parks bring us together. Today is a great example of that.”
While construction of this park began in July 2024, discussions surrounding it stretch back far longer, and last month’s ceremony represented countless hours of conversations with several stakeholders – from the Downtown Investment Authority to Groundwork Jacksonville – and the community itself as the development team worked alongside the City of Jacksonville to create a park that celebrated the Bold City’s bold musical heritage.
“This is what Jacksonville can do when we decide that Jacksonville deserves beautiful things,” Deegan said in her remarks.
‘A Century of Sound’ Beneath Our Feet
As guests enter the winding path cutting through the garden, which leads them through various musical stations and interactive experiences, they will notice the park’s Music Walk of Fame: an installation of 30 markers embedded in the concrete bearing the names of some of the City’s most notable and influential artists, musicians and composers in its musical history.
“These 30 names span more than a century of sound,” Deegan said. “They span gospel and blues, rock and country, hip hop and classical, R&B and jazz.”
To identify the inductees to this Walk of Fame – the first of its kind in Jacksonville – Deegan explained that the DIA assembled a committee of historians, musicians, educators, authors, and industry professionals.
Music Garden with her dog, Bella.
Following the ceremony, DIA CEO Colin Tarbert called the Walk of Fame a celebration of a piece of Jacksonville’s history that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.
“To me, it feels like you’re bringing back a piece of history that maybe I wouldn’t say it was forgotten, but it hasn’t been celebrated,” Tarbert said. “…You’ll be surprised at some of the names that are on there, and the range of diversity of both time period and artists and style of music – it’s very eclectic. It’s just an exciting moment for Downtown to be recognizing the bigger impact that Jacksonville has had, not just here but nationally and internationally.”
The names featured in the Music Walk of Fame are: 38 Special, 69 Boys, 95 South, Allman Brothers Band, Blind Blake, Charlie “Hoss” Singleton, Classics IV, Frederick Delius, Glenn Jones, Gram Parsons, Jahaan Sweet, JJ Grey & Mofro, Johnson Brothers (James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson), Lil Duval, Limp Bizkit, Longineu Parsons II, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ma Rainey, Mae Axton, Marcus Roberts, Molly Hatchet, Pat Chappelle, Quad City DJs, Ray Charles, Shinedown, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Tim McGraw, Ulysses Owens, Jr., Walter Orange, and Yellowcard.
A Place for the Community
Residents immediately began exploring the park and its various stations. Among them was Avondale resident Pamela Telis, a staunch parks advocate and founder of Avondale’s Friends of Boone Park South. She beamed as she took in the new expanse of riverfront space, filled with people moving and grooving to the music playing from speakers throughout the park.
“Any of these big parks on the river in Downtown are so important because they really do bring people from all over the city, versus our neighborhood parks, where it’s really a smaller demographic,” Telis said. “This just brings all of our people, and it’s so much fun to see the diversity, see everybody enjoying themselves and feeling pride in our city, because these spaces haven’t always been utilized to their fullest capacity.”
Telis recalled the times she and her husband would come to the performing arts center to attend the symphony, and they would walk out the back doors to enjoy the riverfront vistas during intermissions. This new park, she said, complements the performing arts center wonderfully.
“What a perfect connection,” Telis said. “…I love this because when I travel throughout the country, I look for these very places to come visit, because for me, they give me the feel of the neighborhood, what’s important to the city. This is what’s important to our city, although we haven’t always been able to highlight it.”
