Macon Magazine

CELEBRATING COMMUNITY, GROWTH, & MEMORIES OVER 25 YEARS OF B R A G G J A M I wrote my first Bragg Jam-related email in 2008 when I was still a junior at Mount de Sales Academy. I was helping out a group of friends with Macon Venue Project, and I had started to promote shows on my own at venues around town. I loved what Bragg Jam was doing, and I wanted in. I think graduating from high school was an unofficial criterion to be taken seriously (and for good reason - I cringe reading those early emails), but a few years later, I found myself helping out with booking bands and eventually joined the Board of Directors in 2012. To me, Bragg Jam is the perfect music festival. I acknowledge the bias I have from playing a part in shaping it, but my love of the last Saturday in July in Macon goes way beyond the music. There's something magical about peeling off from a group of friends only to run into another group in an alley, giving them a 30-second pitch on why they might want to join you or completely abandoning your plans to tag along to wherever they're headed. It's sweaty. It's rough around the edges. It's imperfect. It's inexpensive. My friend and former board president, Leila Regan-Porter, agrees, telling me recently, "My favorite Bragg Jam memories always seem to be focused on the people, seeing the crowds, watching Downtown Macon come to life. The music was always stellar, of course." In many ways, I think Bragg Jam has always been about discovery; discovery of restaurants, bars, faces and places of Downtown Macon, new friendships, oneself, and yes — the performers. It's this jam-packed window of possibility where you can bond with friends and strangers alike over a shared enthusiasm for your new favorite musician, seeing a new friend perform in front of a huge crowd, or being a part of a "I saw them when" moment. BY SEAN PRITCHARD PHOTO BY AND SO WE GO PRODUCTIONS COURTESY OF BRAGG JAM I saw them when... Bragg Jam has contributed nearly a million dollars in artist fees for paid performances and tens of thousands in charitable support for community projects like the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail and Amerson River Park. June/July 2024 | maconmagazine.com 47

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