[from Gwinnett Daily Post]
SUGAR HILL — When Travis Tritt first came onto the Bowl at Sugar Hill stage Saturday night, it wasn’t to sing, at least not yet, but to indulge in a bite of ice cream.
The city of Sugar Hill was aiming to beat the Guinness World Record for largest ice cream party and the Grammy-winning singer lent a hand by counting down to the first bite.
After opening acts Pilot, Presley Sullivan and the Gasoline Brothers entertained the crowd, volunteers passed out around 1,500 servings of ice cream to concertgoers. The ice cream — offered in chocolate mousse, Madagascar vanilla and strawberries and cream — was provided by Daddy O’Brien’s Irish Ice Cream Pub.
The crisp autumn weather didn’t deter the crowd of concertgoers — or Tritt, who enjoyed the cherry amaretto — from eating the cold treat. After a short break, Tritt came back onto stage and opened with,”Put Some Drive in Your Country,” followed by “High Time for Gettin’ Down.” The Grammy Award-winning musician and Marietta native then gave the audience a warm welcome.
“It is absolutely fantastic, wonderful in every way to be back in my home state of Georgia tonight,” Tritt said and was met with a loud cheer from the crowd. “This is where it all got started for me, and this is the place that I still live simply because there is no place that feels like home the way Georgia does.”
Patsy Klein and her niece Shelby Nalley are both longtime fans of Tritt and traveled from Statham to attend Saturday’s concert. The two had front row seats alongside Klein’s daughter Donna Lee and her husband, Rob Roy.
Rob Roy, who is also a longtime fan of Tritt’s, said he came to hear the song “Where Corn Don’t Grow,” and the Sugar Hill resident got his wish early in the show when Tritt performed the upbeat tune.
The free concert was part of the Sugar Rush Festival that began with a 5K race earlier that morning followed by family-friendly activities including inflatables, carnival rides and street performers. There were also a variety of food trucks, a car show and a juried art show inside City Hall.
View full coverage and photo gallery here: GwinnettDailyPost.com