Visit Macon announces acquisition of Rock Candy Tours

"We're excited about that opportunity, and we're excited about what it means for not only tourism, but for growth of our community," Visit Macon CEO Gary Wheat said.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Visit Macon announced the acquisition of Rock Candy Tours on Wednesday.

It’s now officially called Rock Candy Tours powered by Visit Macon. Co-founders Jessica Walden and Jamie Weatherford have handed over the business after 13 years due to overwhelming demand with the hope that Visit Macon can continue the work and take the business to the next level.

“In 2011, immediately after the closure of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, our simple mission was that Macon’s music history does not have to live within a museum’s walls, that it’s on our sidewalks, it’s on our street corners and if our streets could talk, they would sing,” Jessica Walden, who’s the current President and CEO of the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce, said. “And the day after the Music Hall of Fame closed, we met in Washington Park, and about 40 people showed up to do our first walking tour, and from there we just kept walking and talking and sharing the story of making music.”

“We met in Newtown [Macon]’ s office and they were like, ‘What do you want to call this?’ Walden recalled. “And, well, I’m a second generation child of rock and roll, and as you can see by Jamie [Weatherford], he is a production manager at his family’s business, a candy company, and I just immediately said, let’s just call it Rock Candy Tours and see where this goes, and that’s where it started.”

“It was hard for us to scale,” she continued. “It was very hard for us to scale when the demand is there, when people want tours regularly, when they want to hear more. We expanded our product, not just music history, but ghost tours and food tours and brew tours, but we still couldn’t do it all, and of course, we have a team of tour guides today that Jamie will mention, but, that’s when the idea came that in order to meet this incredible demand that we have for Macon, Georgia story, we were able to essentially hand over our business to Visit Macon so they can take it to the next level. I can’t think of any better entrepreneur’s dream as well as a love of making music and a love of this community a better partner in order to do so.”

“The future is super bright in Macon, and we’re really hopeful that this works and we’re extremely grateful to Visit Macon staff,” Weatherford said. “They don’t get enough credit for all the great things that are happening in Macon and for everything that they’re doing to keep the legacy of Rock Candy Tours alive.”

“Macon has become bigger than Atlanta, in my opinion,” Visit Macon Board of Directors President Justin Andrews said. “With everything that we have going on down here in Macon, between of course, the park, the new center, all of the festivals we have going on down here, it is a hub of entertainment down here in Macon, Georgia. So thank you to Jamie and Jessica for starting this. Thank you for allowing Visit Macon to continue this.”

“My first week on the job here, almost eight years ago, Jamie introduced himself, said, ‘I want to take you on a tour,’ and I said, ‘Sure,” Visit Macon CEO Gary Wheat said. “So he loads me up in his car, and after three hours he finally says, ‘Dude, I got a wife and child at home, we got to go.’ And it’s been a great friendship ever since.”

“To be able to have our tours here, Visit Macon, fall under the Rock Candy brand, that iconic Macon brand, is such a celebration for us,” Wheat continued. “And not only the Freebirds and Night Owls and the Macon Macabre and our Soul Sites tours. All those go under one, and we’re excited about that opportunity, and we’re excited about what it means for not only tourism, but for growth of our community and telling our stories.”