ANNOUNCES NEW FREE ADMISSION OFFER!

GREENVILLE, S.C. – It was announced today that the 31st annual Freedom Weekend Aloft festival (FWA) will return to Heritage Park in Simpsonville, S.C., over Memorial Day weekend. The festival will paint the Upstate’s skyline with majestic, multicolored hot air balloons from May 25 – 28, 2012, thanks to a continued partnership with Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center (GHS).

Organizers announced that the 2012 event will offer more opportunities for individuals to enjoy free admission than anytime in the event’s 31 year history. This year individuals and families will enjoy Free Admission for the First 100 Minutes on Saturday and Sunday (May 26 & 27) from 12 Noon until 1:40 PM. Jerry Howard, FWA Chairman stated; “this is exciting to FWA’s volunteer leadership in that this will afford more families the opportunity to come and enjoy the event and event organizers also see this as a great opportunity to recognize and celebrate Greenville Hospital System’s Centennial Celebration”. Details on the First 100 Minutes Free offer can be found at www.freedomweekend.org

Free Admission will continue all day or 450 minutes on Memorial Day, Monday, May 28th as BI-LO Day returns. Memorial Day will be a time to celebrate our service men and women and organizers announced the theme of the day will be “We Love Our Country” and country music will fill the amphitheater as hot new country artist Dustin Lynch headline the day.

FWA is recognized for its signature hot air balloons and the four day concert series with previously announced concerts for 2012 including Colbie Caillat, Gavin DeGraw, Jake Owen, Eddie Money and more.
Those keeping an “eye to the sky” will enjoy more special shaped hot air balloons during the 2012 flights then any previous year as the Purple People Eater will be joined by whimsical balloons from the animal kingdom as a flying elephant, zebra and Spunky the Skunk will fly daily.

As in previous years, FWA will be tobacco-free between noon and 5 p.m. daily, and Hillcrest Memorial Hospital will be onsite to provide first aid. The 2012 event will continue an all-inclusive general admission policy including all amphitheater concerts, viewing of hot air balloon ascensions, disc dogs, acoustic stage, Family Fun Zone and more. Children 12 and under are free. Tickets are available at all BI-LO locations and can be purchased for $8 from April 27 through May 24. For more information, please visit www.freedomweekend.org.

SIMPSONVILLE, S.C. – Organizers announced that Freedom Weekend Aloft was recognized in the May edition of Southern Living Magazine. The event is pictured as hot air balloons fly from Heritage Park in Simpsonville, SC. Only three SC events were selected to be recognized in the publication with Freedom Weekend Aloft being the only Upstate event. Keri Hall, Executive Director stated “ this recognition is what event organizers strive for as this will place the event and the Upstate in front of thousands and thousands of individuals and thus this may ultimately translate into increased attendance with more attendees traveling to the event and filling area hotels and at the same time this recognition is key in introducing new travelers to all that the Upstate of SC has to offer”.

Pre-Sale Begins March 27^th; General Public On-Sale to Begin March 30^th and March 31^st 

Los Angeles, CA (March 21, 2012)- Multi-platinum, two-time Grammy winning singer/songwriter Colbie Caillat and Platinum recording artist Gavin DeGraw have announced that they will embark on a co-headlining 2012 North American Summer tour. The tour will kick off Friday, May 25^th in Simpsonville, SC and hit 22 cities before wrapping on June 29^th in Highland Park, IL (full routing below).  Special guest

singer/songwriter Andy Grammer will open the tour.  Pre-sale tickets will be available for fan club members beginning Tuesday, March 27^th while the general on-sale will begin Friday, March 30^th and Saturday March 31^st.  For additional purchase information, please visit www.gavindegraw.com or www.colbiecaillat.com

DeGraw will perform songs from his third studio album, SWEETER, including his platinum selling hit single “Not Over You,” and his just-released new single “Sweeter,” both co-written with OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder.  Gavin is scheduled to perform “Sweeter” on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 28^th.

Caillat’s set will include new songs plus material from all three of her albums:  COCO; BREAKTHROUGH; and her most recent, ALL OF YOU, which features the hit tracks “I Do,” “Brighter Than the Sun,” and “Favorite Song,” a duet with Common.  Caillat and Common will perform the track for the first time ever on Ellen on April 6^th.

Caillat’s first single “Bubbly,” (from her debut album COCO) caught a generation’s imagination and has become one of the best-selling digital tracks of all time.  Billboard named Caillat its Breakthrough Artist of the Year.  Her follow-up, BREAKTHROUGH broke at No. 1.  Later that year, Caillat was honored with four Grammy nominations and won two for her collaborations with Jason Mraz and Taylor Swift.    “Brighter Than the Sun,” the second hit from All OF YOU, has been featured in more than 21 films, TV shows and commercials, making it the most licensed new song this decade. She supports the Surfrider Foundation, Save the Music, Farm Sanctuary, and the Humane Society of the U.S., for which she is a spokesperson. CAILLAT PHOTOS:  http://www.dbaronmedia.com/colbie-caillat-biography.html

DeGraw is no stranger to the top of the charts, he first broke through with the 2003 release of his debut album, Chariot, which sold over a million copies, earned platinum certification, and yielded three hit singles: “I Don’t Want To Be,” “Follow Through,” and the title-track, “Chariot.” Gavin’s self-titled second album debuted at No. 1 on the digital sales chart and at No. 7 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart in 2008, earning Gavin his first Top 10 album. It spawned the hit singles “In Love With A Girl,” which Billboard dubbed “a rocking homerun,” and the gold-certified “We Belong Together.” In 2009, Gavin released Free as a gift to his die-hard fans clamoring for recorded versions of Gavin’s live favorites.  For more information visit www.gavindegraw.com.

Tour Dates:

5/25/12           Simpsonville, SC          Charter Amphitheatre at Heritage Park

5/26/12           Biloxi, MS                    Hard Rock Hotel

5/27/12           St. Augustine, FL          St. Augustine Amphitheatre

5/29/12           Pittsburgh, PA             State AE – Outdoors

6/1/12             Philadelphia, PA          Penns' Landing – River Stage

6/2/12             New York, NY              Rumsey Playfield

6/5/12             Bethlehem, PA            Sands Bethlehem Event Center

6/7/12             Pomona, NY                Provident Bank Park

6/8/12             Norfolk, VA                  Town Point Park

6/9/12             Vienna, VA                  The Filene Center at Wolf Trap

6/10/12           Baltimore, MD                        Pier Six Pavilion

6/12/12           Raleigh, NC                 Raleigh Amphitheatre

6/13/12           Atlanta, GA                  Chastain Park Amphitheater

6/14/12           Charlotte, NC              Time Warner Cable Uptown Amphitheater

6/17/12           Fayetteville, AR           Arkansas Music Pavilion

6/19/12            Bee Cave, TX              The Backyard

6/21/12           Lake Charles, LA         L’Auberge Casino Resort – Pool Stage

6/22/12           Thackerville, OK          WinStar Casino

6/24/12           St. Louis, MO               Peabody Opera House

6/26/12           Sioux City, IA               Orpheum Theatre

6/27/12           Apple Valley, MN        Weesner Amphitheater

6/29/12           Highland Park, IL         Ravinia Festival

For further press inquiries on Gavin DeGraw, please contact:

Dvora Englefield / Lisa Taylor / 42West                                                       

310.477.4442                                                 

Dvora.englefield@42west.net / lisa.taylor@42west.net

Sarah Weinstein Dennison / RCA Records

212.833.5593

Sarah.weinstein@rcarecords.com

For further press inquiries on Colbie Caillat, please contact:

Diana Baron/Caroline Stegner / DBaron Media Relations Inc.

310.315.5444

diana@dbaronmedia.com / caroline@dbaronmedia.com

FWA is nationally recognized for its signature hot air balloons and four-day concert series held in Heritage Park’s Charter Amphitheatre.

“We are excited about the concerts and artists that we are announcing today which includes country, adult contemporary, 70’s and 80’s and some of today’s best nationally known touring artists,” said FWA Executive Director, Keri Hall. “We feel confident that we will have something for everyone and the 2012 concert series will not disappoint”.   Organizers will be announcing additional concerts very soon.”

The concerts organizers are announcing today are:

FRIDAY, MAY 25th:

Colbie Caillat – www.colbiecaillat.com

This pop singer-songwriter and guitarist from Malibu, California debuted in 2007 with Coco which produced the hit singles “Bubbly”, “Realize” and “The Little Things”.  Caillat won a Grammy in 2008 for her duet “Lucky” which she recorded with Jason Mraz.  Her second album, Breakthrough, was released in 2009 and was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2010 Grammy Awards.  She has sold over 6 million albums and 10 million singles worldwide.  Caillat’s third album, All Of You, was released in 2011 and has produced hit singles including “I Do” and “Brighter Than The Sun”.

Gavin DeGraw – www.gavindegraw.com

This New York born singer, songwriter and musician is known for hits including “Chariot”, “Follow Through”, “I Don’t Want To Be”, “In Love With a Girl” and “Not Over You”.   DeGraw’s rise to fame began in 2003 when his single “I Don’t Want To Be” was selected as the theme song for One Tree Hill.  DeGraw is appearing on the current season of Dancing With The Stars.

SATURDAY, MAY 26th:

Jake Owen – www.jakeowen.net

Owen was signed as a RCA Recording artist in 2005 and his first album Startin’ With Me produced three singles that reached the Top 20 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart including “Yee Haw”, “Startin’ With Me” and “Something About A Woman”.   His second album, Easy Does It released in 2009 produced three more chart topping singles with “Don’t Think I Can’t Love You”, “Eight Second Ride” and “Tell Me”.  In the Fall of 2011 Owen achieved his first number one on the country charts with Barefoot Blue Jean Night from the title track of his third album.   Owen’s has just celebrated another milestone as he now has had back to back #1 hits as “Alone With You” has reached the top of the country charts.

SUNDAY, MAY 27th:

Eddie Money – www.eddiemoney.com

Money was born in Brooklyn, New York and is an American  rock guitarist, saxophonist and singer-songwriter who found success in the 1970s and 1980s with a string of Top 40 hits and platinum  albums.  In the 1970’s after leaving his career as a Police Officer he was signed as a Columbia Recording artist.  Hit singles “Baby Hold On” and “Two Tickets to Paradise” followed in the late 1970’s.  Success continued in the 1980’s with the MTV Video success of “Shakin” and “Think I’m In Love”.  Additional hits followed with “Take Me Home Tonight”, “I Wanna Go Back” and “Walk On Water”.

The 2012 event will continue with an all inclusive general admission policy.  The all inclusive festival admission policy includes ALL the amphitheater concerts, hot air balloon ascensions, disc dogs, Family Fun Zone, sporting events, and more.  Organizers will announce additional concerts, new exciting and never before admission policies, new special shaped hot air balloons and more.  Organizers encourage individuals to visit www.freedomweekend.org for ongoing updates.

Click here to register

Race entry includes a free ticket to Freedom Weekend Aloft, information on FREE parking, a scenic gravel free course, motivation stations, and a VIP post-race reception.

All proceeds will go towards enabling young people to participate in mission experiences this summer with Southside Fellowship.

Both the Southeast Regional Championships and South Carolina State Championships are qualifying races where pilots can compete for bids to the U.S. Nationals and the World Championships. Freedom Weekend Aloft will attract some of the nation’s best hot air balloon pilots among them Joe Heartsill of Texas, a 5 time US National Champion and former World Champion; Nick Donner of Illinois who is also a 5 time US National Champion and the only pilot to ever win 3 consecutive national championships (2009 -2011); and Chase Donner chairman of the Balloon Federation Association, (Nick’s younger brother), and a member of the US World Team for the 2012 World Championships.

South Carolina is located in the Balloon Federation Association’s Southeast Region which is the largest of 6 regions in the US and is comprised of 13 states extending from Louisiana to Washington D.C.

The Southeast Tourism Society Top 20 Events receives extensive exposure in print media, web and television and radio in the U.S. and Canada. Over 1,600 newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, AAA’s and others receive the listings. The Top 20 Events are listed on the Southeast Tourism Society website, www.southeasttourism.org and on their consumer website www.escapetothesouthest.com. The Top 20 Events pages are consistently among the most visited on the Southeast Tourism Society sites.

LightningHammer has also developed the Freedom Weekend Aloft mobile application as an extension of the website for users on the go. Users can read recent news, browse the event schedule, get weather updates, and much more.

The mobile application is available for FREE on iPhone and Android devices.