Flint Riverkeeper’s 2024 Knobby Knees Music Festival highlights fight to protect Flint River

ALBANY – Southwest Georgia residents and visitors alike filled the greenspace at Albany’s Flint RiverQuarium Saturday to enjoy good music, good food and celebrate the Flint Riverkeeper’s protection and restoration of the Flint River,.

Henry Jackson, the Riverkeeper’s outreach and development director, said the festival’s goal is to gather people in downtown Albany and celebrate what a valuable natural resource the Flint River is to the community. He said the celebration grows by about 100 people each year.

“We’re attracting more and more visitors every year, downtown and to the event,” Jackson said. “For a lot of people who come … it’s their first time learning about the Flint Riverkeeper … or really anything about the Flint River.”

This year’s festival was in conjunction with the Flint RiverQuarium’s celebration of World Oceans Day. The two celebrations emphasized the importance of our waterways and partnerships that find solutions to challenges facing both the Flint River and the world’s oceans.

Attendees of all ages set up camp with chairs and picnic blankets across the lawn from 4-11 p.m. to watch performances from six artists: The Bones of J.R. Jones, Evergreen Family Band, Jontavious Willis, The Shelby Brothers, Matt McMillan & the City Limits, and Unbreakable Bloodline. The night was filled with dancing and jumping in front of the stage as well as activities for kids scattered outside and throughout the aquarium.

Early attendees braved the afternoon sun and heat to hear the folk rock sounds of Columbus-based band The Shelby Brothers. Jesse Shelby, the band’s singer, said Jackson reached out to them, explaining the event and the Riverkeeper’s work.

“We were all in just because of who they are, and the lineup looked so fun,” he said.

The band traveled from Columbus (above the “gnat line,” as Shelby said) to play music for the festival. Columbus sits along the Chattahoochee River, so Shelby said a river has had an influence on their music. He said the group was just as excited about the other musicians performing as they were to perform.

“It’s hot, but everyone’s having a good time,” he said. “It felt great watching everybody bob their heads, move around and get into the music.”

Albany-based, and local favorite, Unbreakable Bloodline raised the crowd’s energy level as the sun went down, with their combination of hip-hop, soul, rock and R&B performance. They had attendees pumping their fists and dancing with yellow balloons.

Jessica and Martin Norman said they were most excited for Unbreakable Bloodline’s performance as they’ve seen them play in the community before.

Martin works for Smith Gray Electric, which was one of the event’s sponsors. He said the company prioritizes supporting community movements. The company got them VIP tickets to enjoy a catered dinner and relief from the heat inside the Flint Riverquarium. The Normans said it was their first year attending the celebration.

“Any way of bringing the community together – local people, food trucks – I support,” Martin said.

Jessica said the Flint River is an important piece of their family.

“We love to kayak, and any picture of our kids is taken by the river,” she said.

She said she enjoyed the opportunity to not only hear live music but learn a bit more about the Flint River that the family spends much of its time on.

After each set, basic facts about the Flint were shared, including the role the river has played in the Albany community, some of the efforts being made to restore habitats, water quality and flow as well as how people can get out on the river.

The Flint River flows from Atlanta to the Florida border where it joins the Chattahoochee River to form Lake Seminole. It’s one of only 40 rivers in the U.S. that flows more than 200 river miles unimpeded. It’s fed by the Floridan Aquifer, which is one of the principal aquifers in the U.S. and one of the most productive in the world, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Hundreds of millions of gallons of cool, fresh groundwater are pumped into the Flint River from the aquifer.

“A lot of people don’t realize there’s a direct relationship between the amount and quality of the water in the river and the amount and quality of water in the aquifer and the role the aquifer plays in this community … it’s industrial use … or its use in irrigation of agriculture,” Jackson said.

He said there’s been a surge of interest in the river since the COVID-19 pandemic when people were turning to outdoor sports like canoeing and kayaking while everything else was shut down.

“Whether it’s biking and walking the trail that runs alongside the river or it’s fishing or kayaking on the river, for a lot of people, the Flint suddenly became an outlet for them,” Jackson said. “We’ve seen that continue, just more and more people get involved in the river.”

He said he hopes the Knobby Knees celebration fosters that continued use that is “so important” to Albany.

Bill and Candy Parks enjoyed the music from their camp chairs. They said they’ve been coming to Knobby Knees for the last three years. The Parkses said they enjoy kayaking and boating along the river, and their love for music brought them out to support the event.

“The Riverkeeper does a real good job in keeping everybody informed about what’s going on with the river,” Bill said.

Jackson said the idea for a music festival predates him, but the Riverkeeper has continued the event because they know music brings people out.

“Music is a great connector of people,” he said. “We strive hard for there to be something for everyone, and we really designed the entire event around it being a welcoming of people to the river community.”

File Photo: Lucille LanniganStaff Photo: Lucille Lannigan

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