Toccoa Receives Grant for Flames Fest

Toccoa receives grant money from the state to help put on a new festival.

Last week, the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Georgia Council for the Arts awarded Toccoa with $1,680 to be used for a concert featuring Francine Reed at the Schaefer Center in March.

Toccoa Main Street Events Coordinator Sharon Crosby said the concert is part of a new event set for 2016 in Toccoa called “Flames Fest.”

“It is four weekends around February and March where we will be honoring the Famous Flames,” said Crosby. “This will be our fourth event, having Francine Reed here. We are very excited she is able to come.”

Events begin on February 11 and continue through Reed’s concert on March 3.

The original Famous Flames, Bobby Byrd, Nafloyd Scott, Nash Knox, Johnny Terry, and Sylvester Keels, were all from the Toccoa area.

In the early 1950s, James Brown joined the group and they performed together from 1953 to 1968.

The Famous Flames’ hits included songs like “Please, Please, Please,” “Try Me,” “Think,” “I Don’t Mind,” and many others.

James Brown’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame biography notes that Brown’s years with the Famous Flames represent his greatest period of impact as a driving force in soul music and as live performer, noting not just the songs, but the stage choreography that Brown and the Flames put together.

The Flames went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

Crosby said it is important for Toccoa to remember the Flames.

“So many people of course know James Brown, but do not know the importance of families in Toccoa that made his fame possible,” said Crosby.

The state awarded 93 grants totaling more than $300,000 through the Council for the Arts’ Vibrant Communities program.

Over 100 applications for the grant funding were received.