This year’s Summer in the City Music Festival, on August 14th and 15th, will be about big sound, yet will have a boutique atmosphere. Expect a dynamic line-up of top regionally and nationally acclaimed bands. An impressive fourteen hours of music will play nonstop through the entire weekend.
There will be something for everyone. Blues, country, rock and contemporary music will be mixed in with food, wine, and downtown stores luring shoppers with sidewalk sales.
Lisa Harnisch and her husband, Randy, have gone to the festival the last two years, but this year it was a can’t-miss event for them as vendors. “We are thrilled to actually participate in the festival this year,” Randy said.
As owners of West Salem Wine Store, they wanted to support the event and Salem’s downtown. “We support the business community and want to be a part of it,” Randy said. “We are thrilled to participate in Summer in the City. We will be featuring some smaller wineries from our area that deserve some attention. We will be showcasing Pudding River, Silver Falls, Arcane Cellars and Viridian from Rickreall. It will be a great time to show off these regional wines.”
Downtown vendors are excited to be in the ‘thick’ of the activities. Kurt Spingath, co-owner of BelgiQue Sugar Waffles, is happy to have the opportunity to showcase his relatively new product. “We are hard to find down here in the basement of the Reed Opera House. We have an excellent product; people just have to discover it. We are part of downtown, and we are excited to participate in downtown activities,” said Spingath.
Local vendors are a main attraction, but Waving Tree Winery owners Evelyn and Terrance have made the trip down from Eastern Washington for the past two years. “We have a dry red wine. It is something a little different than the local wines. This year we will be bringing some sweet wines that are great for summer. Coming to the Summer in the City in Salem is worth the drive. It’s almost like a vacation. We enjoy the music and the people,” said Evelyn.
Liberty Street will be closed and the core of downtown will turn into a “music in the street” event. Concert tickets are $7 for an all-day ticket. Saturday’s concert is from 1 to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 6 p.m. Ticket access is limited to the in-street fenced pavilion area. All city sidewalks and store and restaurant access will be in the free zone.
Put your mind around closed-off streets and twelve bands for a weekend of ear candy, grapes, and brew combined with sunshine. All the bands are proven talent: Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, Country Joe McDonald, Pepe and the Bottle Blondes, NW Blues All Stars, Lloyd Jones, Robbie Laws, Monti Amundson, The Ty Curtis Band, Phamous Phaces, and popular local bands include $100 Jayhawks, Rock and Roll Cowboys, and the Funhouse Strippers who have a large local following.
Summer sounds fill the stage and music options abound from jazz to rock ‘n’ roll. Cherry Poppin’ Daddies return after too many years between engagements. They will entertain crowds at 8 p.m. on Saturday night. Many locals remember the band’s start-up days playing in venues around Salem. With their wide range of genre diversity, their style may be best described as one of musical eclecticism.
Country Joe McDonald co-founded and led the psychedelic folk-rock band Country Joe and the Fish, the left wing band of the 60s. He recorded 33 albums and has written hundreds of songs over a career spanning 40 years.
Pepe and the Bottle Blondes are back this year to Summer in the City by popular demand. Created in 1995 to bring back the “Copacabana Style” enhanced with costuming, makeup and percussion and beat of Latin rhythms. They have an eclectic ensemble of saxophones, congas, percussions, trumpets and three part harmonies.
NW Blues All Stars is a compilation of some of the Pacific Northwest’s top blues guitarists coming together for the Summer in the City Music Festival. Terry Robb, Jim Mesi, Jake Blair, Orvil Ivie, Garry Meziere, and Gary Burford will take the stage and bring on the blues. Robb is a 30-time winner for the Best Acoustic Guitarists and was inducted into the CBA’s Hall of Fame and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. He is considered one of the top acoustic blues guitarists on the West coast.
Lloyd Jones has recorded six critically acclaimed albums, toured internationally, and received dozens of major awards and accolades. People can’t get enough of his swampy blues, back porch picking, funk soul roadhouse two-beats, and old school rhythm and blues.
Bring your walkin’ around money and a yearning for some good tunes. The season is summer, and it’s all about the Salem music scene in the summer.
