Arts and Entertainment

Six months after Glenn Richards’ conversation with Jason Hedges about his band’s debut album, Jason (also frontman of the Petty tribute band, Heavy Petty) would be organizing a concert to celebrate the life and legacy of Gainesville’s Tom Petty, who passed away unexpectedly on October 2nd. Two years later, that original event – held over what would have been Petty’s 67th birthday – has grown into the Tom Petty Birthday Weekend featuring multiple events across the city including two music festivals.

Nick Bublitz says, “The co-production is a yearly event between the School of Theater and Dance and the Hippodrome and it is the base of which we kind of launch both seasons … and it’s a wonderful opportunity to really have students at the School of Theater and Dance work professionally at the Hippodrome.”

Travis Atria says, "Essentially, these songs sound better than they ever have before. This is the ideal version of the album."