Although the Cultural Commission has received some pushback about the time and date change of the Santa Clara Concerts in the Park summer series, it was clear by the approximately 300 attendees on Aug. 21 that moving the shows to Friday evening not only drew a larger crowd but more families and broader range of Santa Clarans. The acts, which have largely been similar to last year’s performances, with a couple of new additions, seemed to enjoy not playing in the middle of a summer Sunday afternoon, and the crowds seemed much more interested in dancing away the stresses of the previous week. All-in-all, the performances have been a success, and last Friday’s show was the last of this year’s season.
Bay Area favorite, The Megatones, took the Central Park Pavilion stage to close out the series, saying they were happy to be back in Santa Clara, calling the crowd beautiful and saying Central Park was a magical place. Then, after greeting the crowd, the band immediately went into their set, pulling out rock hits that included songs by Santana and Tom Petty, which enticed the youngest and oldest in the crowd to groove until the last note was played.
Although the Concerts in the Park summer concert series has concluded for the 2015 season, the Cultural Commission has still planned plenty of things throughout the year, including the Triton Free Fridays performance series in conjunction with the City of Santa Clara and the Triton Museum of Art.
The Friday evening concerts, said Eversley Forte of the City’s Cultural Commission, have gone extremely well, but Friday evenings are not over We’ve been doing [Friday performances] for about a year now on the first Friday of each month. We have five shows going on at the Triton Museum and it’s everything from – it’s very cultural oriented – so we have a performance from different countries and different types of music playing and we have Chinese dancers and we have Aztec dancers and different types of poetry and music and dances. We have plays that are coming up. The first Friday of each month at the Triton Museum. It’s free.
Triton Free Fridays will begin on Friday, Sept. 11 with a performance by Tabia African American Theater Ensemble. Tabia, who most recently performed in Santa Clara at the Triton’s Summer Solstice art fair in June and in 2013 at the SCPAF fundraiser, will be reading poetry, drumming and sharing stories. Doors to the museum open at 7 p.m. with the show beginning at 7:30 p.m.
For information on The Megatones’ upcoming performances visit www.megatones.net and www.facebook.com/megatones. For more information on Triton Free Fridays, pick up a postcard at the Triton Museum of Art, 1505 Warburton Ave. (across from City Hall), or visit www.facebook.com/tritonfridayperformance
