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Friday, Mar. 29, 2024

Summer Music Series schedule released

Van Wert independent/VWCF information

The Van Wert County Foundation has released the 2014 Fountain Park Summer Music Series for the year, and while mostly returning groups, there is plenty to like about the lineup.

The Lima Symphony Pops Orchestra is one of the groups that will perform as part of the 2014 Fountain Park Summer Music Series. Here, the orchestra performs in 2013. (VW independent file photo)
The Lima Symphony Pops Orchestra is one of the groups that will perform as part of the 2014 Fountain Park Summer Music Series. Here, the orchestra performs in 2013. (VW independent file photo)

Bring a chair and join the crowd for the first concert on Friday, June 6, during the Peony Festival/ArtRageous weekend when the beach party band, Papa Doo Run Run, comes to Fountain Park from sunny California!  Kick off the summer with the music of the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, and all your favorites from yesteryear that guarantee to get the park a jumpin’!

Tom Rigney and Flambeau is a hot roots music band playing Cajun, zydeco, blues, and New Orleans music. Rigney, the fiery, electrifying violinist/composer, joins forces with some of the finest musicians on the San Francisco roots music scene to form Tom Rigney and Flambeau, a band that will tear the roof off any place that has one and raise the spirits of everyone around. Catch this show on Friday, June 20.

Brass Transit is being called the world’s best tribute to supergroup Chicago!  All the great songs from the legendary rock band will come to life in Fountain Park on Friday, June 27.  The audience will be singing along with all the hits from this hot and talented band, right down to the vocals, guitar solos, and horn riffs.

Brass Transit made its debut in Van Wert last summer, but the concert had to move indoors to the Niswonger Performing Arts Center because of inclement weather. Hopefully, this year there will be blue skies so the band can shine au naturel (so to speak).

This year, area residents can celebrate the Fourth of July with The Lima Symphony Pops Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Crafton Beck, right in Fountain Park.  Although the LSO Pops normally plays on the Fourth in Lima’s Faurot Park, Lima’s loss is Van Wert’s gain this summer. Enjoy the great music that celebrates America, including some extra special surprises this year specially produced for this rousing Fourth of July celebration!  Then head to Smiley Park near the airport to enjoy the fireworks — a perfect combination to make that Independence Day celebration extra special.

The Motown Sounds of Touch was a top three finalist on the Popular NBC TV Show “The Winner Is.” The group is the top “Motown Sound Tribute” in the country, so get ready to move and groove with this popular band performing the smooth sounds of Motown on Friday, July 11.

Scarborough Fair, featuring the Guthrie brothers (Jeb and Jock), return to Van Wert’s Fountain Park, where a love affair with this town started following their exciting Simon & Garfunkel tribute concert a few years ago.

They so much enjoyed the city and its appreciative audience that they are returning from their home in New Jersey to once again share the great music of Simon & Garfunkel that everyone knows and loves.

The 2014 Summer Music Series ends Friday, August 1, with the music of one of rock’s most endearing bands: Journey.

Never Stop Believin’ is the ultimate Journey tribute show featuring the incredible vocals of Donny Ferrari, who looks and sounds amazingly like Steve Perry.  The dream of all area Journey fans will come true in Fountain Park when they experience the music of the amazing lineup that dominated arenas worldwide in the late 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s.

All of the free Summer Music Series concerts start at 7 p.m., with food service beginning at 5:30 on each concert date. For more information, visit vanwertcountyfoundation.org/arts-fountain-park-concerts, email paul@vanwertcountyfoundation.org or call 419.238.1743.

POSTED: 03/08/14 at 7:32 am. FILED UNDER: News