In a move that's sure stirring up the local buzz, Kennesaw has brokered a deal hitching name rights for its new amphitheater smack dab in Depot Park to The Piedmont Bank. This deal secures the bank's moniker above the venue gates for a span of three years, beginning when the spot opens up and readying itself to welcome up to 3,000 bodies for an array of hometown events, as the city confirmed in an announcement earlier today.
Slating to crack its doors open come Spring 2024, “The Piedmont Bank Amphitheater” is sizing up to be quite the local landmark featuring a decently vast 50 x 42 ft stage that'll play house to Kennesaw's Concert Series, patriotic gatherings, and even Santa's Day Out, yet the deal inked with The Piedmont Bank—a banking operation with no fewer than 16 branches in Atlanta and yonder—just might be what keeps the community spirit in check but the implications of corporate sponsorship on public spaces remains an ongoing debate amongst the locals.
"We are excited to announce this partnership with The Piedmont Bank," Mayor Derek Easterling told the City of Kennesaw, lauding the bank's knee-deep plunge into local affairs following its latest branch that swung open its doors downtown. It's this kind of gesture—alongside the amphitheater's nameplate—that's racking up points for community involvement for the bank.
Meanwhile, The Piedmont Bank's big cheese for the East Cobb area, Andy Akin, is trumpeting the ripe timings, with the financial institution gleefully grabbing a slice of Kennesaw's pie and planting roots both in the ground and in the community fabric, the amphitheater marque just being one example of their commitment to stir the pot of local growth and involvement though it's worth noting how these corporate ribbon-cuttings play out in the long game of small-town camaraderie and development.
Kennesaw residents and visitors alike can now set their calendars for the festivities and fanfares to come at the debut of The Piedmont Bank Amphitheater. But until that first guitar string reverberates across the Depot Park lawns, you can bet the local chatter will be just as loud about the bank's latest footprint expansion.
