This Friday night will conclude our 10th year of Fountain Park Summer Music, sponsored by The Van Wert County Foundation.\u00a0We expect to go out with a \u201cbang\u201d!\u00a0 We have Gary Puckett and the Union Gap band coming to perform our finale, beginning at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
Many of our concerts are not as well known as this week\u2019s artist.\u00a0Puckett has been performing since the 1960s and enjoyed remarkable success throughout the Sixties and Seventies with chart-topping hits songs such as \u201cYoung Girl\u201d and \u201cLady Willpower.\u201d\u00a0 The band has definitely left its mark in the American Pop Rock world.\u00a0 We are pleased to have them finish our 10th season of music in Fountain Park.<\/p>\n
The concert begins at our usual 7 p.m. and will probably last about two hours.\u00a0Then, following our concert, a huge 27-x-30-foot screen will be inflated and, as the band is loading out and after our audience has a chance to take a break and get some popcorn, we will promo the upcoming concerts coming to the Niswonger Performing Arts Center this year.\u00a0This should take about 8 minutes and will then immediately be followed by a showing of The Wizard of Oz<\/em>.\u00a0 I hope everyone will be able to gather friends and family and enjoy an exciting concert and then take in one of the great movies of all time.\u00a0This opportunity has been made possible in part by Statewide Ford, Taylor Auto Sales, and Lee Kinstle GM Sales & Service, all of Van Wert.\u00a0If you have the chance, thank them for making this possible!<\/p>\n People from all over the region have been inquiring about the concert, as Gary Puckett has a big following.\u00a0So expect to see some more new faces in the crowd this Friday and invite them back for more concerts in Van Wert.<\/p>\n I was asked recently in a newspaper interview what has made our concerts in Van Wert so popular.\u00a0 I\u2019m not exactly sure, other than what people have told me.\u00a0They enjoy the variety and the fact that our concerts are fun and family friendly.\u00a0I hope to continue this trend and offer concerts for a long time that people can trust and enjoy.\u00a0Occasionally, we may stray a little on the \u201cwild\u201d side of things or maybe to the \u201cconservative\u201d side for others.\u00a0 I guess it all balances out in the end and you hope you have reached everyone\u2019s entertainment palate.<\/p>\n Come this Friday, be ready to have a good time with good people, good food (provided by the Cattlemen\u2019s Association), good music and follow it up with a good movie that has become one of the most beloved of all time!<\/p>\n As I look back on this summer, there are many people, organizations and groups to thank.\u00a0 I have mentioned many of them before, but one I want to mention as we wrap up another season is the congregation of Van Wert\u2019s First Church of God.\u00a0Kathleen Davis contacted me last spring and asked if they could help serve the community by picking up trash in the park following our concerts.\u00a0I told her that would be great; however, our audiences seem to be very respectful and do a good job of picking up after themselves.\u00a0I have, though, throughout the summer seen volunteers from the church going around the park filling trash bags.\u00a0I know I appreciate their service to our community and I imagine the city parks department does too!<\/p>\n So, thank you to the good people of the church, as well as all the others who have had a part of making Fountain Park an enjoyable place to come for concerts over the past 10 years.\u00a0Here\u2019s to many more!<\/p>\n FIN\u00c9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This Friday night will conclude our 10th year of Fountain Park Summer Music, sponsored by The Van Wert County Foundation.\u00a0We expect to go out with a \u201cbang\u201d!\u00a0 We have Gary Puckett and the Union Gap band coming to perform our finale, beginning at 7 p.m. Many of our concerts are not as well known as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 01:53:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}