Concert in the Park

When I was a child, my parents would take us to the band shell at Unity Park, in Turners Falls, Ma. http://www.montague.net/pages/montaguema_parks/parks for concerts.  In the picture on this website, the shell was on the far right.  When I was little, I hated going to these concerts. 

As a young adult, I started going to these concerts and enjoyed them.  Hmmm.

When I first moved to Lubbock, I was on a very limited budget and found things to do that were free.  One of the first things I found was the Concert in the Park, at Clapp Park http://www.mylubbock.us/departmental-websites/departments/parks-recreation/parks/city-parks. The band playing was the Westwinds Brass Band http://westwindsbrassband.org/index.php. Dean Killion was the conductor then.  I attended these concerts for the first few years I was in Lubbock, then fell off.

When my neighborhood had a neighborhood association, we had a couple of concerts at Leftwich Park. I am not sure any of them were the Westwinds Brass Band.  I know one was the Lubbock Youth Orchestra. Sometimes, I went to other neighborhood parks for their concerts.

I lived in the country for a while, but when I moved back to town, I started going to the Concerts in the Park again.  These are now regularly scheduled at Wagner Park for most of the Sundays in June and some in July .  They are sponsored by the Tech Terrace - UNIT Neighborhood Association.  And the Westwinds Brass Band is the performing act.

Sometimes, they move one or two concerts to other locales.  But most are at Wagner Park.

Tonight was the first night of the 2013 series.  It was a beautifully mild evening, and the crowd was large.  The band was good.

This time of year is busy for the Westwinds, if you look at their website.  They play at Fourth on Broadway, the Lubbock 4th of July Street Festival.  They also play at the First Methodist patriotic concert.  I do not get to that.  It starts at  6PM and is usually "sold out." It is too hard to get there in a timely way from work.  But I understand it is an outstanding music event.

I will miss the concert next week, as I have a prior commitment.  But the Concert in the Park is one of the fastest hours of the week, in my book.