Music in the Park Has Great Lineup Myers Park ConcertsNext Thursday starts another great lineup for the Music in the Park series.  This year seven bands are booked for the Thursday series in Myers Park, and two for the Friday series at the smaller venue at Ludlowville Park.

"Every year seems to be bigger than the year before it," Colt says.  "There is an awful lot of talent around here.  It's a very unique area for a lot of different genres of music. 

Colt starts getting demo CDs and YouTube links to review prospective bands in the fall.  With the success of the series, which typically attracts 500 to 800 people on concert nights when the weather cooperates, he has a choice of the best local bands available.  But it wasn't always that way.  When the series started a dozen years ago the concerts only attracted around 30 or 40 people each. 

"We started out with five bands," he recalls.  "I had to beg and plead to get them to show up.  They played in a pavilion.  People seemed to like it and it's grown each year.  In the first few years I had to try to explain to bands what it was we were trying to do.  Now I find myself apologizing that I can's hire everybody.  And if the weather's nice we're getting really, really big crowds."

Next Thursday, July 9, Iron Horse leads off the season on the Myers Park Bandstand.  They will be followed by Bad Alibi (July 16), Bad JuJu (July 23), Jorge T. Cuevas & The Caribe Jazz All-Stars (July 30), The Destination (August 6), Steve Southworth and The Rockabilly Rays (August 13).  Tailor Made concludes the Myers series on August 20.  The Friday Ludlowville Park series will feature Kip and Rich (July 17) and Marty & Shannon (July 31).  All the concerts begin at 6:30pm.  In addition July 31 is the Lansing Lion's Club ice cream social night.

This year King Ferry Winery will have a bar tent where they will be selling Treleaven wines and micro-brewery beers.  The wine will be available by tasting, by glass, or by bottle.  A caterer will also offer picnic-type food.

Colt is frequently asked why he doesn't offer seven weeks of a particular popular genre.

"I like to keep it as diverse as we can," he says.  "We get a pretty good mix of performers, and this year in particular is a really strong year.  If we get the right weather I think it's going to be special down there."

Myers Park Concerts

Each year attendance grows.  The best nights last summer attracted around 1,000 people, many of whom brought lawn chairs and blankets.  Although the bands face the lake when they perform, Colt is considering turning it around because there is more audience space on the park side of the bandstand.  He is even hoping to add a small, removable thrust stage that would attach over the stairs, so bigger bands will have more room, and the 'front men' for other bands would have more performance space.

"I make a particular point of telling the musicians, 'I don't know how much sound equipment you've got, but go get more," he says.  Because as many people as you see in front of the bandstand, there are at least that many more to your sides and behind you.  There are an awful lot of people who sit to the sides and behind.  So now these guys are setting up their sound in the round to get it out.  It's fun to see how it's grown."

Both concert series are free.  Colt says they are dependent on donations given at the Myers Park series, which have been sufficient to cover the costs of both series.

"We're not trying to make money, but we're trying to break even if we can," Colt says.  "In the last few years the concerts have paid for themselves and also covered the costs of the two or three concerts we do in Ludlowville Park on Friday nights.  We've been very fortunate.  People are generous when they come in."

Colt dreams of adding bigger name bands, possibly headliners from the '70s and '80s that do nostalgia tours.  But for now local bands provide more than enough talent and variety to keep the series growing.

"People appreciate this," Colt says.  "It's gone in the direction I always hoped it would, toward families bringing their kids.  Everybody's very well behaved and they enjoy it.  That's what I hope it will do as it keeps going forward."

v11i26