![\"Sandra](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_7444-KO-1024x683.jpg\")
Sandra Litchfield looks forward to biking along the newly reopened Northbank Riverwalk and by the Riverfront Music Garden with her dog, Bella.<\/p>\n
Nearly two years after the City of Jacksonville closed it off for construction, the stretch of the Northbank Riverwalk behind the Jacksonville Center for Performing Arts has transformed into the Riverfront Music Garden.<\/p>\n
City officials, community stakeholders and residents came out to celebrate the official grand opening of this new public park on Wednesday, May 13. As he introduced Mayor Donna Deegan during the Wednesday morning ribbon-cutting ceremony, City of Jacksonville Director of Parks, Recreation and Community Services Darryl Joseph spoke of what he called the \u201cpower of parks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur mayor understands the power of parks,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cHow well-planned parks, well-maintained parks and activated parks bring us together. Today is a great example of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
While construction of this park began in July 2024, discussions surrounding it stretch back far longer, and last month\u2019s ceremony represented countless hours of conversations with several stakeholders \u2013 from the Downtown Investment Authority to Groundwork Jacksonville \u2013 and the community itself as the development team worked alongside the City of Jacksonville to create a park that celebrated the Bold City\u2019s bold musical heritage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what Jacksonville can do when we decide that Jacksonville deserves beautiful things,\u201d Deegan said in her remarks.<\/p>\n
\u2018A Century of Sound\u2019 Beneath Our Feet<\/p>\n
As guests enter the winding path cutting through the garden, which leads them through various musical stations and interactive experiences, they will notice the park\u2019s Music Walk of Fame: an installation of 30 markers embedded in the concrete bearing the names of some of the City\u2019s most notable and influential artists, musicians and composers in its musical history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese 30 names span more than a century of sound,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cThey span gospel and blues, rock and country, hip hop and classical, R&B and jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n
To identify the inductees to this Walk of Fame \u2013 the first of its kind in Jacksonville \u2013 Deegan explained that the DIA assembled a committee of historians, musicians, educators, authors, and industry professionals.<\/p>\n
Sandra Litchfield looks forward to biking along the newly reopened Northbank Riverwalk and by the Riverfront
Music Garden with her dog, Bella.<\/p>\n
Following the ceremony, DIA CEO Colin Tarbert called the Walk of Fame a celebration of a piece of Jacksonville\u2019s history that doesn\u2019t get the recognition it deserves.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, it feels like you\u2019re bringing back a piece of history that maybe I wouldn\u2019t say it was forgotten, but it hasn\u2019t been celebrated,\u201d Tarbert said. \u201c\u2026You\u2019ll be surprised at some of the names that are on there, and the range of diversity of both time period and artists and style of music \u2013 it\u2019s very eclectic. It\u2019s just an exciting moment for Downtown to be recognizing the bigger impact that Jacksonville has had, not just here but nationally and internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n
The names featured in the Music Walk of Fame are: 38 Special, 69 Boys, 95 South, Allman Brothers Band, Blind Blake, Charlie \u201cHoss\u201d Singleton, Classics IV, Frederick Delius, Glenn Jones, Gram Parsons, Jahaan Sweet, JJ Grey & Mofro, Johnson Brothers (James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson), Lil Duval, Limp Bizkit, Longineu Parsons II, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ma Rainey, Mae Axton, Marcus Roberts, Molly Hatchet, Pat Chappelle, Quad City DJs, Ray Charles, Shinedown, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Tim McGraw, Ulysses Owens, Jr., Walter Orange, and Yellowcard.<\/p>\n
A Place for the Community<\/p>\n
Residents immediately began exploring the park and its various stations. Among them was Avondale resident Pamela Telis, a staunch parks advocate and founder of Avondale\u2019s Friends of Boone Park South. She beamed as she took in the new expanse of riverfront space, filled with people moving and grooving to the music playing from speakers throughout the park.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny of these big parks on the river in Downtown are so important because they really do bring people from all over the city, versus our neighborhood parks, where it\u2019s really a smaller demographic,\u201d Telis said. \u201cThis just brings all of our people, and it\u2019s so much fun to see the diversity, see everybody enjoying themselves and feeling pride in our city, because these spaces haven\u2019t always been utilized to their fullest capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Telis recalled the times she and her husband would come to the performing arts center to attend the symphony, and they would walk out the back doors to enjoy the riverfront vistas during intermissions. This new park, she said, complements the performing arts center wonderfully.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a perfect connection,\u201d Telis said. \u201c\u2026I love this because when I travel throughout the country, I look for these very places to come visit, because for me, they give me the feel of the neighborhood, what\u2019s important to the city. This is what\u2019s important to our city, although we haven\u2019t always been able to highlight it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly two years after the City of Jacksonville closed it off for construction, the stretch of the Northbank…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-292193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}