{"id":89560,"date":"2017-06-28T07:17:36","date_gmt":"2017-06-28T12:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=89560"},"modified":"2017-06-28T08:00:38","modified_gmt":"2017-06-28T13:00:38","slug":"celebrate-america-in-fountain-park-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/06\/28\/celebrate-america-in-fountain-park-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating America in Fountain Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Believe it or not, we are coming up on the weekend before the July 4 holiday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>With the Fourth falling on a Tuesday this year, our typical Friday night concerts fall squarely on either side of the holiday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>We will celebrate our Independence Day on each Friday before and after the Fourth.<\/span><\/p>\n

This Friday, as has been tradition for many years, the Lima Symphony Pops Orchestra will be in Fountain Park presenting a concert of American music.\u00a0It will include American Pop tunes, Broadway show selections, jazz, rock, Classical, and several patriotic selections and marches. This concert is always well received and I am sure this year will be the same.\u00a0Maestro Crafton Beck has made our concert fit in his busy conducting schedule and will be on the podium.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>He says Van Wert is always one of his favorite places to play.<\/span><\/p>\n

There will be a group of citizens handing out American flags for a $1 donation which will be refunded if you return it to them following the concert.\u00a0Otherwise, keep it and you just bought a $1 flag you can use again and again!\u00a0This effort is headed by Linda Hartman.\u00a0We thank her for her patriotic service.<\/span><\/p>\n

The following Friday, July 7, features the U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors.\u00a0The musicians of the U.S. Army are outstanding players who play some of the best Big Band jazz music and patriotic tunes.\u00a0They consist of professionally trained musicians from some of the finest schools of music and then audition for a place as a U.S. soldier.\u00a0They travel the world over entertaining our troops, dignitaries, and citizens of America.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are fortunate the Jazz Ambassadors were passing through the Midwest and I have always made it clear that Van Wert welcomes our military ensembles. They happened to have a Friday open and it worked out that July 7 was going to be an open date for us.\u00a0Rather than take a Friday night off, I immediately said yes to them.\u00a0It is an honor and a pleasure to host them in Fountain Park.\u00a0You will enjoy these exceptional musicians and their exciting music!<\/span><\/p>\n

We seem to be in a pattern of rainy weekends — just what a concert coordinator doesn\u2019t want.\u00a0Last week, I was monitoring the weather closely, with the help of Emergency Management Director Rick McCoy.\u00a0Everyone was saying the rain would move out by mid- to late afternoon.\u00a0I stuck to my guns and it ended up being a beautiful night for a concert with the Travelin\u2019 McCourys.\u00a0They gave us an exceptional Bluegrass concert in Fountain Park.<\/span><\/p>\n

This week, with a symphony orchestra in the park, the set-up will be a bit more involved.\u00a0With over 50 chairs, stands, percussion equipment, and a more intricate sound system, the decision will be a little trickier to deal with if we have rain.\u00a0We will need to make the call as to being outside in Fountain Park or inside at the Niswonger PAC by 2 p.m.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>News outlets, websites of The Van Wert County Foundation, the Van Wert City Parks Department, and social media will all be alerted if we need to move inside to the Niswonger.\u00a0When in doubt, drive by the park after 2 p.m. and if you don\u2019t see action of people working on stage, then it has been moved indoors.<\/span><\/p>\n

At any rate, we hope you join us for an American celebration this Friday night with the Lima Pops Orchestra.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>It will be a tremendously enjoyable evening of music.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>If we are still outdoors, the Boy Scouts Troop 35 will be serving the food.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>If we are forced to move indoors, then they will need to try again next year.\u00a0This is another reason why I always try to keep concerts outdoors if possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hey!\u00a0Big sales days are coming soon to the Niswonger Performing Arts Center.\u00a0Those who wish to buy the Grand Series can begin reserving their seats this Friday, June 30, starting at noon.\u00a0Then, for those of you who wish to select your own concerts, you can start doing so on Select Series day: July 14.\u00a0This is always a big day and we look forward to it at the Niswonger.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The excitement for the 2017-18 season is building.\u00a0You should have received your catalogs in the mail last week if you are on our mailing list.\u00a0We have a tremendous line-up for 2017-18 and I look for the over 18,000 people on our mailing list to show up for tickets quickly.\u00a0Don\u2019t be left out!\u00a0Make your plans now.<\/span><\/p>\n

FIN\u00c9.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Believe it or not, we are coming up on the weekend before the July 4 holiday.\u00a0\u00a0With the Fourth falling on a Tuesday this year, our typical Friday night concerts fall squarely on either side of the holiday.\u00a0\u00a0We will celebrate our Independence Day on each Friday before and after the Fourth. This Friday, as has been […]<\/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-89560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 10:23:36","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\/89560","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=89560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}