Irmo Mayor Barry Walker Sr. is keen to point out that his town was ahead of the curve when it comes to smaller S.C. towns building amphitheaters to attract visitors.

“Actually, ours was first,” he said when asked about the Prisma Health Amphitheater at Irmo Community Park and whether efforts such as this weekend’s inaugural Fallfest are aimed at emulating the crowded events seen at such nearby spots as Lexington’s Icehouse Amphitheater and Blythewood’s Palmetto Citizens Amphitheater.

“We built Irmo Community Park way back in 2007. And they kind of followed suit after us,” the mayor said.

But when it comes to utilizing the 500-seat amphitheater, the town has fallen somewhat behind. While Lexington has brought consistently big audiences with events such as the free Lexington Live concert series, Irmo’s amphitheater has only been consistently leveraged once a year, during the town’s annual Okra Strut festival.

“They’re taking more advantage of their ... amphitheater, and we haven’t.” Walker said. 

But that appears to be changing.

The first-ever Juneteenth Freedom Fest packed the park and amphitheater this summer, and the town has rallied an Events Committee to help organize more events, such as a hot dog roast this summer and participating in the community policing initiative National Night Out.

While they’re not on the Events Committee, it was Walker’s invitation to be on it that inspired two Irmo residents, civil engineer Larry Watts and restaurant manager Mark Passmore, to rally Irmo Community Park’s inaugural Fallfest.

The pair formed the company LMN Promotions to mount the festival, which will include five musical acts along with 25 artists of varying disciplines and food trucks.

The hope is to replicate the festival each spring and fall.

Better utilizing Irmo Community Park and its amphitheater is an emphasis for Watts and Passmore. 

The former said he helped assemble an ultimately unsuccessful design bid for the park before it was built and is currently working on ideas for a commercial component of the park’s in-progress addition, made possible by the purchase of nearly 10 neighboring acres of neighboring land last year. 

Passmore, who works with the J Peters chain and Chapin’s Rusty Anchor, said he is working on a restaurant concept for what he and Watts referred to as a potential “Main Street” for Irmo.

Taking full advantage of the amphitheater would be key to making this concept work.

“I’ve lived here in this town for eight years, and I didn’t know this was here until about two years ago,” Passmore said of the venue. “It’s never used.”

Watts, who plays guitar, said the inspiration for the musical lineup came when he began backing local songwriter Natalie Roers. He began to think about doing an event to highlight her and other songwriters he knows.

“I have a couple of friends that write some great music, original stuff, and I just wanted to try to do something that would propel them a little bit more,” he said. “Not so much me, I’m not a good writer, but they are.”

Natalie & the Boys are joined on the lineup by headliner Jeff Lucero, along with SideKix, Another Rock Summer, and The 100 Grand Band.

Watts and Passmore hope to build on the concept in the future, perhaps grabbing bigger regional acts for events in Irmo — and in other towns if there’s interest. 

A key reason there isn’t such an act at the inaugural Fallfest is the timetable the pair had to plan it. From settling on the idea of a music and arts festival in the park to carrying out the event Oct. 15, they said they had less than 10 weeks to make it happen.

Passmore said the festival and future events LMN does in town will be part of an effort called Irmo Shines.

“Irmo Shines is built specifically to get some attention to this park,” he said. “We’re going to have arrows pointing to this park because I’m surprised how many people do not know it exists.”