It was a practice jam session that ended up turning into a full-blown concert experience for people down in the Outlook Regional Park last weekend.
On Saturday, July 29, dozens of people got comfortable in the bowl of the park and watched local singer Marcia Orton take to the stage, who was followed by the quartet known as the Riverbottom Boys.
The impromptu show was at first just going to be a band practice, but the group decided to throw their equipment in a trailer, get the word out on Facebook with less than 24 hours notice, set up down in the park bowl, and provide anybody within earshot some free entertainment with familiar tunes and melodies.
“This is a really good turnout for something like this,” said drummer Chris Akre, who noted that a similar event took place a couple of summers ago with less people. “It’s a lot of work to set up and do something like this, but I figured it was either do this or mow grass, and it beats mowing!”
Orton took to the stage before the band and wowed the crowd with her impressive vocal talents, which was on full display for theatre goers earlier this summer when she played the title role in Equinox Theatre’s production of Anne of Green Gables.
The fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach to promoting and setting up the stage for the concert was a unique one, and those in attendance were enthusiastic about something similar happening again soon, perhaps even establishing a concert series in the park in the future.
