Goodbye, Sunday evening concerts at French Memorial Park. Hello, Saturday evening block parties in downtown Seymour.
The Seymour Culture and Arts Commission has changed days and venues for its annual summer concert series. The free concerts, starting June 4, will be held in downtown Seymour.
The audience at French Memorial Park had been dwindling. Meanwhile, a monthly “First Saturday” event in the downtown business district has proven to be popular. On First Saturdays, downtown shops extend their business hours, often offering discounts — and refreshments including wine and cheese — to customers.
The First Saturday events have also featured live music, where officials close a road so people can dance.
“We weren’t getting a lot of people up there (at French Park) but we got a big response to the block dances on the First Saturday,” said Kimberly Osgood, a member of the Seymour Culture and Arts Commission.
Moving the concerts downtown means making a block party, closing off the area around Bank Street and First Street.
“Instead of having them in the park, they are doing it downtown on the first and third Saturday of the month,” Osgood said.
The change will offer a better parking situation for visitors as well, Osgood said.
The French Memorial Park series had been going on for at least a decade. Bands performed on the gazebo in the park.
The concerts were popular with Seymour’s senior citizens.
The new locale downtown is probably a better location for the concert series, said Lucy McConologue, director of the Seymour Senior Center.
“I think probably there’s more parking downtown and other things to do downtown, which makes it nicer. The terrain is flat too. If you go a little earlier there are places to eat, the stores are open,” McConologue said. “There’s more available to them along with the music.”
Concerts are usually held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The schedule:+ June 4: Flashback, 50s, 60s and 70s
+ June 18: Al deCant, family and children’s entertainment
+ July 2: Larry Ayce, country 70s and 80s
+ July 16: Rich Bobinski Orchestra, polka, 70s and 80s
+ August 6: Starving Artists, 50s, 60s and 70s
+ August 20: U.S. Navy Band
+ Sept 3: Flashback, 50s, 60s and 70s
