For residents of all ages, a new summer concert series, Park After Dark, made its debut in downtown Naperville this weekend at the Naperville Community Concert Center in Central Park.
Despite poor air quality conditions cancelling Friday’s opening night, the show went on Saturday and Sunday for evenings of family fun and community connection.
Bringing residents together downtown
“Downtown Naperville is looking at creating more events, more opportunities for the community to come together,” said Shannon Greene Robb, founder and executive producer at Arranmore Events.
Downtown Naperville Alliance, Arranmore Events, and Freightwood Creative Production co-hosted the concert series, with Freightwood designing the cardboard stage set.
“The whole idea is taking something that we see every day, like cardboard, and how can you reimagine it? So we’re looking at this park. You might drive by it. People are like, I didn’t even know it was here. So how can we use something and reimagine it in unique ways?” Greene Robb said.
Performances for all ages
The evenings began with an invitation for kids — and kids at heart — to join the Cardboard Creation Studio at 4:30 p.m. Guests used cardboard, pipe cleaners, paper, and markers to build with.
Chicago-based kids’ performance group Adventure Sandwich opened the concert at 6:30 p.m. Along with music, cardboard sandwich puppets led the audience through a game show.
Local bands headlined each evening at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, the Lovettes performed hits from female groups like the Supremes and Tina Turner. Sunday’s group, Better Together, performed soul and jazz hits from artists like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles.
Friday’s show was supposed to feature Michael Mahler singing Paul Simon hits. Organizers are now looking for a date to reschedule the performance.
A hopeful annual event
Greene Robb said that organizers are hopeful to host the series again in future years.
“It feels like this beautiful sense of community and this way to come together on a beautiful summer evening,” she said. “It’s multi-generational, which I think is really beautiful. There’s adults dancing, there’s little kids dancing, they’re dancing together, and that’s just really special.”
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