The landscape and atmosphere of downtown Athens have always been in flux—ushering in and out cultural phases based on the blend of businesses filling its blocks. In the early 1980s, when the Georgia Square Mall opened, it attracted many retailers away from downtown, notably sparking a rebrand from a shopping destination to one home to smaller, locally owned businesses, restaurants and music venues. Now the ghostly corridors of the Georgia Square Mall are set for a major downtown-like redevelopment while luxury apartments and corporate stores like Target and CVS integrate into downtown.
Rising rents, among other factors, have set panic into small business owners and their loyal patrons. Downtown has also long been an essential space for the overflowing creative community in Athens to showcase its talents. So when a beloved venue—that, yes, is also a beloved bar serving free, perfectly salted popcorn—celebrates 25 years of operation, it’s a shining light of townie hope in today’s murky waters.
Flicker Theatre and Bar opened on West Washington Street in 2000 under Angie Grass, who had founded Flicker as a film society previously without a brick-and-mortar home. In 2007 Clint McElroy and current co-owner Jeremy Long, officially CFO alongside his wife and CEO Kim Long, decided to buy the business when it went up for sale.
“I managed the Vision Video downtown for 17 years. I was saving up money to buy the video store because I always wanted a movie theater. By the time I had any amount of money, it was clear I shouldn’t buy a video store. Then Flicker came up for sale,” says Jeremy. “So I bought it with the intention of having a movie theater that had bands sometimes, and it turned into a live music venue that has movies sometimes.”
The change in business model was an organic one that Grass had also come to before Long. Screening at least one film a week and hosting music another four to five nights has remained consistent over time. However, Jeremy has spent a lot of time and effort curating the “vibe” of the venue side of Flicker, which he says has been a journey. When he took over Flicker there was a very small stage with DIY sound and a limited mixing board. Now there’s a proper stage with full sound operated by staff, and vibrant murals painted by Marisa Leilani Mustard and Will Eskridge that Jeremy views as Flicker’s “tattoos.”
“When we built the stage, they wanted to make it a little higher. I wanted to make it a little lower so that people could step off the stage for hip-hop or punk rock shows and easily get back and forth. Be part of the audience, because it’s really important to me,” says Jeremy.
One of the COVID pandemic’s downtown casualties was Caledonia Lounge, just behind Flicker on West Clayton Street. The venue’s closing was a hard blow for the local and touring music scene, but Flicker’s unique space has absorbed many displaced bands over the last few years. But not without new challenges.
“We had a metal show, sort of our first full metal show that would have been a Caledonia show. It blew our amps and everything. So we’re like, ‘Oh, shit, we really need to upgrade all of this stuff.’ So we did a whole bunch of upgrades,” says Jeremy. ‘It’s really helped now because we have better subs so we can have better sounding hip hop, better metal, better punk.”
Beyond music, Flicker’s stage is open to a variety of performances from comedy and poetry readings to puppet shows and author events. Jeremy shares how important it is to him not to gatekeep and provide space for anyone who has something they want to try.
“Sometimes it’s a disaster, and sometimes it’s amazing,” says Jeremy. “That’s why you walk the tightrope, just to see what happens. I always saw Flicker as that. It’s like where anybody in Athens who’s artistic can try anything, within reason. There’s so much creativity in this town, and I’d hate for it all to just stay in people’s living rooms.”
Another element of Flicker as a creative space is its long gallery wall opposite the bar that showcases a different artist each month. Currently the popular wall space has a year-long waitlist. Kim explains that the featured artist keeps all profits from their sold pieces, but they are also responsible for organizing contact info and handling sales. The mutually beneficial trade provides Flicker with consistently refreshed artwork that contributes to its iconic atmosphere and mission to encourage local creatives.
Just as COVID was a turning point for many businesses, it prompted Flicker’s owners to join the Chamber of Commerce in search of resources. Navigating venue grants was not a user-friendly experience, says Kim, and the process for some was grueling. Finding what grants were available, which ones applied to Flicker then how to fill them out was becoming disheartening.
“I was so grateful because David Bradley helped us so much… he kept in touch with us the whole time and really helped us to navigate things and connected us with resources at UGA,” says Kim. “So I’ve joined the Chamber of Commerce, and it’s been really helpful because now we’re really recognizing that as Athens is growing, we have to figure out how to reach new people.”
Jeremy and Kim emphasize that as local owners wanting to maintain the “local vibe” of their establishment, as opposed to being a college or party bar, it requires some innovative hustling and outreach to the community. Leaning on regulars and expecting people to know they exist because they’ve been open for 25 years is not how it works, says Kim. As a college town, the population of Athens is constantly regenerating, and so Flicker also has to constantly regenerate, says Jeremy.
“You sacrifice a lot of potential income. We know that we’ve consciously made the decision to not be a college party bar, right? It is kind of a prime location, as much foot traffic and as many college party bars have spread to our side of town. We really could cash in on that, but it’s kind of soulless, right? We want to maintain the Athens soul, and that’s a really important mission. And we feel like we’re caretakers of that,” says Kim.
The future of Flicker will be built on bridges. Now that its business owners have made connections to the chamber and UGA, they’re focused on getting organized. Kim says that a student marketing team will be helping to establish some routine and structure for the business and its outreach moving forward.
“The local businesses in Athens need a tremendous amount of help. We can’t compete with these huge corporations moving in and opening their chains. We just can’t,” says Kim.
The Longs attribute Flicker’s success to a group effort, alongside co-owners Jon Miller and Annie Markham, a dedicated staff and a sympathetic landlord. They view Flicker as its own entity with its own identity that could persist with or without them, but for now they are happy to be its tenders.
“We’re happy to hit that 25 year mark because we really didn’t know… especially five years ago after our 20th anniversary, then everything shut down,” says Kim.
“We’ll just keep working on the vibe. We just hope that we can keep being. That Flicker can keep going for a long time,” says Jeremy.
There will be a two-night 25th Anniversary Extravaganza full of live music to celebrate with the community. On Friday, Feb. 14 the lineup includes Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band, Little Gold, Don Chambers and Neat Freak. Then on Saturday, Feb. 15 there will be performances by Elf Power, Elijah Johnston, Honeypuppy and Johnny Falloon. Doors open at 8 p.m. both nights, with advance tickets available at flickertheatreandbar.com.
WHO: Flicker’s 25th Anniversary Extravaganza
WHEN: Feb. 14–15, 8 p.m. (doors)
WHERE: Flicker Theatre and Bar
HOW MUCH: $15 (single night), $25 (both nights)
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