Word on the street: Downtown, underground and all around town

The big news in the neighborhood this week is — you might have guessed it by our cover — Friday’s Get!Downtown festival.  

Get!Downtown (I’m not sure why it has an exclamation point in the middle, but whatever) started out as a scheme to get college kids off their respective campuses and make them think there was something to do in Lynchburg besides play Call of Duty in their dorm rooms.

Surprisingly, it turned out there really were things to do here, and interesting people breakdancing in the street and great food and an entire neighborhood to explore. No, a Kevlar vest is not required to walk the streets, as some smug locals used to suggest to me. Yes, there’s plenty of life down there.

Now in its third year, I’m confident saying Get!Downtown is a neighborhood mainstay and people well above college age are welcome to join. Until last year’s festival, when more than 7,000 attended by early estimates, I’d never seen Main Street so packed with people. I hope to see the same this Friday night.

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The scene is going underground with the much-anticipated opening of The Boiler Room, a speakeasy-type lounge in that cool subterranean alley between the Parlor Spa and the parking garage.

I was broke this weekend and might have missed its opening, but I’ve been told by reliable sources (Casey Gillis, among others) that this place could set a new standard for hipness around here. The building’s old boiler has been repurposed as a beer tap, and there is an outdoor patio set up in the underground alley. Sounds promising and I wish them well.

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Lately I’ve been sporting an "O-Foe" window sticker on my Jeep, courtesy of Lynch’s Landing, and you can too.

Executive Director Anna Bentson decided to capitalize on the YouTube success of Tony Camm’s "Get Downtown" video of a few weeks ago by printing an exclusive run of these things.

They’re available at the Lynch’s Landing office at Commerce and 11^th. Get some.

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Last week I mistakenly said that some, but not all, of the hot dogs at The Cavalier Store were made of beef. Owner Wells Duffy had a beef with this, so to set the record straight: all the hot dogs you’ll find at the Cav are of the all-beef variety. They are proud of that fact, and rightfully so.