Hosted and organized by volunteers, the Payson Park Music Festival will continue its 35-year summer tradition of free, kid-friendly music.
The festival began on June 18 and will run through Sept. 3. Weather permitting, the performances will begin at 6:30 p.m. each Wednesday. Musicians include Craig Cartner and the Hurricane, the Cheryl Arena band, Beatles Tribute Band 4EverFab, the Beantown Buckaroos, among many others. For those who want to attend virtually, the show will be streamed on the Payson Park Festival website.
“[The atmosphere includes] lots of people relaxing on a weeknight, bringing picnic goods and lawn chairs,” said Eddie Scheer of the Love Dogs, and longtime performer at the festival.
Since the beginning, the concert was envisioned to be a place “where a caretaker would pack a light food (like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich) and have their kids play and listen to music,” founder Tommasina “Tomi” Olson said.
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Over 30 years ago, the idea was sparked by her son’s soccer coach, who had expressed that there was no local music.
Olson took action. When recalling how the Payson Park Music Festival came to be, she likened it to “Cinderella getting her dress made by her friends in the attic.”
To make it happen in the early days, neighbors chipped in $20. Community members donated benches. Someone on the South Shore was giving away their bandstand (typically a circular pavilion where artists perform), but when the organizers went down to retrieve it, they realized that it was too much to disassemble. Instead, a concrete slab was proposed. To cover the cost, a resident named Brian Saper donated around $3,000. To beautify the space, resident Linda Oates donated trees. Organizers had handed out fliers, spreading the word about the festival.
Since then, the Payson Park Festival has sustained itself with its seasonal, weekly performances in the summer.
The festival’s charm stems from how it’s a kid-friendly event, reflected in the “Kiddie Concerts” – now renamed to “Sherry Harris Jones Children’s Concert Series” – and in the “Kiddie Popsicle stands” where children sell plastic-wrapped popsicles.
“It’s a great place for people to come, bring their kids and dogs, and hear some music,” Cheryl Arena said. Arena, a Belmont native harmonicist, has been playing for the Payson Park festival for at least 10 years. “I like seeing the kids out there…they’ll come up front and dance [with] no inhibitions.”