Drivin N Cryin, Arrested Development headline Alzheimer’s Music Fest on Friday

Friday’s Alzheimer’s Music Festival at the Buckhead Theatre will feature Drivin N Cryin and Arrested Development for a cause that has personally impacted most of the performers who will appear.

The festival will raise money for the Dementia Spotlight Foundation and awareness about the condition and its pernicious, wide-reaching effects. Also appearing will be Cracker, Kurt Wheeler, Guru Fish and Zangaro.

The evening’s promise of an enthralling, upbeat concert belies the reality of the condition that the Dementia Spotlight Foundation seeks to confront. For patients the world over, Alzheimer’s is a merciless disease that quietly and systematically reduces its victims to hollow shells of their former selves and leaves a path of devastated families, loved ones and caregivers in its wake. (I’ve observed that beast in action as it has taken its toll on my family and left me with the haunting awareness that I may one day be its casualty.)

“My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s about 10 or 11 years ago,” says Dementia Spotlight Foundation co-founder Whitney Oeltmann. “At that time my mom and I were devastated and looking for support. The whole experience is really tough. When my dad was diagnosed, it was like all of a sudden he was no longer a person. Even though he was the same person he was when he came in, all of the talks were to me and my mom. They said, ‘This will be the hardest thing you’ll ever do.’”

Feeling lost and overwhelmed after her father’s passing, Oeltmann and her mother set about looking for support groups only to find existing resources and organizations to be lacking. Motivated by a newfound initiative to provide both Alzheimer’s patients and their loved ones with resources, education and, above all, support, “I quickly realized we were not alone in this feeling of not knowing where to turn,” she says. “Alzheimier’s is dementia. It’s a lot more than just memory loss.” 

Recognizing the need for more comprehensive help, Oeltmann became a co-founder of Dementia Spotlight Group. In a modern age where initiatives to uplift the marginalized are in the foreground of public discourse, Alzheimer’s is under-addressed. 

To that end, the group’s annual Alzheimer’s Music Festival hopes to find success in the confluence between education and entertainment. Founded as a small yearly event in Woodstock by musician Vince Zangaro — himself the caregiver to a father with Alzheimer’s — the festival was subsequently expanded and emboldened when taken under Dementia Spotlight’s wing. Originally slated to take place at The Tabernacle in September, the festival was delayed due to Covid concerns and thus relocated to Buckhead Theatre. The event will feature performers interspersed with educational segments from the foundation as well as master of ceremony duties handled by Jennifer Long (aka Shea Love) of KISS 104.1 FM.

Of particular importance to this year’s event is the performance by Atlanta’s legendary hip-hop group Arrested Development, a move intended to help bring attention to the tragically overlooked degree to which the African American community is affected by Alzheimer’s. “The African American community has a higher rate of Alzheimer’s, period,” says Oeltmann. “They’re the last to get diagnosed.” 

Arrested Development frontman Todd “Speech” Thomas has been an passionate and enthusiastic supporter of the festival after experiencing the effects of Alzheimer’s in his own family. “Speech has been an incredible spokesperson to reach that community.” According to Oletmann, Speech’s interest stems from his father’s high blood pressure — an issue whose prevalence among African Americans leaves the community uniquely vulnerable to vascular dementia.

Like Speech, all of this year’s headliners have been in some way personally affected by Alzheimer’s, a fact which helps draw attention to the condition’s reality as a shared human experience. Oeltmann is quick to point out that the social effects of dementia are frequently ignored. “There’s a stigma — people are afraid to talk about it. My dad’s friends went away, and I do believe it was the stigma and the fear.”

Attendees to the Alzheimer’s Music Fest will be required to show either proof of Covid vaccination or a recent negative test. On-site testing will be provided.