A.J Jackson at the Peace Center unveiling of The Mockingbird
Weaving past and present in the design at The Mockingbird in Greenville entertainment reporter A.J. Jackson talks about its features
- The Peace Center is opening a new music venue, the Coach Music Factory, in downtown Greenville.
- Located in a former 1850s blacksmith shop, the venue offers a standing-room-only, club-like experience.
- The two-story space can hold up to 1,100 guests and features multiple bars and an outdoor patio.
- The first performance is scheduled for Feb. 7, featuring G.Love & Special Sauce.
The Peace Center is days away from opening its second music venue in a two-month period, with the Coach Music Factory set to offer a new live-music experience on Main Street in downtown Greenville.
Located at the former site of a 1850s blacksmith shop and factory at 310 S. Main St., the newest Peace Center venue will feature a standing-room-only, club-like environment for visitors seeking a more immersive music experience in downtown Greenville.
“A city is interesting when it has a blend of the old and the new, and we have that on our campus,” said Megan Riegel, CEO of the Peace Center, during a press conference in early January.
“Coach Music Factory is a little down-and-dirty, earthy and versatile,” Riegel said.
Showcasing new mixed-media finishes and doubling as a private event space, the Coach Music Factory will host its first performance on Feb. 7, featuring G. Love & Special Sauce as the debut act.
Its next performances are The Lone Bellow on March 27, and The Infamous Stringdusters on April 26, with all shows beginning at 8 p.m.
As Peace Center’s six-acre campus prepares to debut its two new music venues, part of a previously reported $36 million expansion, here are the final details of the Coach Music Factory in downtown Greenville.
Coach Music Factory offers the vibes and sentiment of a traditional nightclub, and more
The new two-story venue transforms a 170-plus-year-old structure, the Greenville Coach Factory, which once served as a blacksmith shop and factory, into an open-floor dance space with a stage that can be lowered or raised to suit the artist or the crowd.
While not as intricately designed as its recently opened counterpart, The Mockingbird, Coach Music Factory uses the brick from its predecessor, along with other small nuances that complete the overall feel of the upcoming entertainment venue, including:
- Vaulted skylights resembling mill paddlewheels to keep the building’s historic look and feel
- Two floors of stage views and one enclosed private event space on the top floor
- All glass retractable garage door that gives views of the Peace Center campus
- Two long, marble-and-tile bars on both sides of the stage, with one bar on the mezzanine
- Outdoor patio which overlooks The Pavilion, The Wyche, and the Reedy River
The new music venue is expected to hold up to 1,100 guests at a time and feature a wide range of genres, including rock, country, jazz, pop, R&B, electronic jazz, and more.
This standing-room-only live music venue draws inspiration from The Orange Peel in Asheville, North Carolina.
“The artist wants to be right there mixed in with the crowd, and the crowd wants to be mixed in with the artist — that’s what’s going to be at Coach Music Factory,” said Riegel, who admitted the concept is still a bit of a mystery of how the venue will perform.
For more information and tickets, visit: www.peacecenter.org/coach-music-factory
– A.J. Jackson covers business, the food & dining scene, and downtown culture for The Greenville News. Contact him by email at [email protected], and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @ajhappened. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers. Sign up today for a digital subscription.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.greenvilleonline.com ’
