{"id":17611,"date":"2017-06-21T17:04:45","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T21:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17611"},"modified":"2017-06-21T17:04:45","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T21:04:45","slug":"concerts-in-the-park-series-to-launch-with-distinct-canadian-flair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/concerts-in-the-park-series-to-launch-with-distinct-canadian-flair\/","title":{"rendered":"Concerts in the Park series to launch with distinct Canadian flair"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Concerts in the Park have become a popular Aurora tradition showcasing the sounds of the world under the open skies of Town Park throughout the summer.
\nNext month, however, Concerts in the Park is kicking off the 2017 concert series with a distinctly Canadian offering to coincide with the Canada 150 celebrations.
\nLooking for Lightfoot?
\nConcerts in the Park will offer a \u201cphenomenal\u201d simulation.
\nA huge fan of Shania Twain? Well, would you settle for Shania Twin?
\nThere\u2019s something for everyone, young or old, and also opportunities to help the Aurora Food Pantry when the first concert kicks off July 5 with a youth concert led by the Juno-nominated Carl Bergeron.
\n\u201cThis year we focused on Canadian bands, artists and songwriters and we stayed true to that theme,\u201d says Shelley Ware, Special Events Coordinator for the Town of Aurora. \u201cWe wanted to showcase a variety of genres that we always do and give the audience a diverse experience from a capella to folk to rock. We like to think the spectrum has been met. It is a truly Canadian experience. We haven\u2019t gone outside Canada\u2019s borders and we really focused on making sure the content was Canadian. That was the effort for Canada 150.\u201d
\nThe 2017 Concerts in the Park series was officially launched Thursday afternoon at Town Park.
\nMayor Dawe got the ball rolling with yet another significant boost from TD Canada Trust, who have stepped up to sponsor this year\u2019s event, providing people who make a donation to the Aurora Food Pantry with the \u201cultimate concert experience.\u201d
\nFor every donation of food, you are entered into a draw for the full VIP experience, which includes front row seating and service for you and three friends in green Muskoka chairs, service, and food vouchers for on-site vendors.
\n\u201cThe Premium Seating experience is very equitable to what the experience is in being a TD customer, which is what they try to showcase to all their customers,\u201d says Ms. Ware. \u201cThey are dedicated to music and the arts and the Aurora community with having four branches here. This is just bringing the experience to the community in a different way. The Concerts in the Park series is celebrating its 20th anniversary and we like to think it is getting better each year and adding this partnership has enabled us to keep raising the bar.
\n\u201cFood donations go to the Aurora Food Pantry and there is a misconception they are only needed at Thanksgiving or Christmas time, but there is a need all year round. When you donate a food item, your name goes into a ballot and it is drawn at the beginning of the concert and you and three friends get upgraded to the seats. The first season we had the experience, the response was like, \u2018Really?\u2019 now it is \u2018How do I get in there?\u2019 It is definitely a sought after experience. Clearly, we are only giving this experience nine times this summer, so it really is a premium opportunity. The partnership with TD has allowed us to step up our game.\u201d
\nFollowing the July 5 kick-off concert, the series continues July 12 with emerging country star Dani Strong, an original songwriter discovered through the Magna Hoedown.
\nClassic Lightfoot with John Stinson hits the stage on July 19, followed on July 26 with a tribute to Bryan Adams.
\nAugust 2 features the Toronto All Star Jazz Swing Big Band, a 40 person ensemble, followed on August 9 by the a capella group Cadence.
\nCeltic music will be in the air when the Mud Men hit the band shell on August 16, followed on August 23 with the original classic rock band \u201cThe Kings.\u201d
\nThe series closes August 30 with Shania Twin, a tribute to Shania Twain.
\n\u201cThe summer concerts series is very much community-based. In keeping with that, we are going to have a rotating lineup of emcees for the evening, which are people who are aligned with certain community organization such as Activate Aurora, Windfall Ecology Centre, CHATS, and Neighbourhood Network,\u201d says Ms. Ware. \u201cEach week you are going to see a variety of emcees which we hope is going to draw a greater community connection as well.
\n\u201cThis is the summer tradition in Aurora: Wednesday nights and concerts is where you go to meet your neighbours and make new friends. If you don\u2019t take the opportunity to come down, you\u2019re really losing out on a great opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Concerts in the Park have become a popular Aurora tradition showcasing the sounds of the world under the open skies of Town Park throughout the summer.
\nNext month, however, Concerts in the Park is kicking off the 2017 concert series with a distinctly Canadian offering to coincide with the Canada 150 celebrations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/2017-06-22-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4A3","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 12:19:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}