What will summer look like in Hartford?
Plans take shape as the city aims for something to do ‘every single day and every single evening’
HARTFORD — A year after the pandemic caused a hush to fall over Hartford’s downtown, Mayor Luke Bronin foresees a city “alive again with art and music and dance and sports and food every single day and every single evening.”
The makings of a vibrant, in-person summer in the city have already begun to take shape.
In May, baseball returns to Dunkin Donuts Park and an outdoor, interactive sculpture exhibit will take over the lobby and courtyard of the Wadsworth Atheneum. For three days in July, live jazz will once again grace the stage in Bushnell Park as vendors and food trucks dot Trinity Street. And all season long, cultural celebrations will work to draw droves of people to an already busy riverfront.
To hear those planning the return of Hartford’s hallmark events, it won’t be too hard to find something to do any day or night this summer, even as residents and visitors are slowly acclimating to the end-tail of the season of COVID-19.
“Bringing fun and activity and joy back needs to be at the center of our recovery - not just for our kids but for our community as a whole,” Bronin said in his State of the City address last Monday. “Like every city across the country, our city has felt hollow and empty without the energy and cultural life that makes us a city. This summer we need to bring that back.”
Gatherings will still call for mask wearing and events must still comply with COVID-19 health and safety guidance and state restrictions.
That’s an easy ask for the event planners behind WeHartford, which held socially distant picnics in Bushnell Park last year and will be bringing the series back “with an enhanced experience” in June, says Melissa Melonson.
The group is also planning a new, immersive dining experience at The Goodwin Hotel starting in April and possibly a “walkable” celebration of the arts in the downtown in the fall.
Riverfront Recapture and Summer in the City are also planning a full slate of summer concerts and events. The only thing cut from the list is dragon boat racing, usually a main attraction of the Asian Festival, “simply because putting 20 people on a boat is still challenging,” says Mike Zaleski, president and CEO of Riverfront Recapture.
But that annual, August celebration will still go on, along with the rest of the schedule, like the Riverfest Food Truck Festival and Taste of the Caribbean and Jerk Festival.
“Instead of having the 30 vendors, we might scale it down to about 15, 20,” said Melinda Debeatham, president of the Caribbean food and arts event. “I don’t want to pack the place and have any incidents with Covid or anything else. But even if we don’t bring in a big name, international headliner, folks want to get out so they’ll probably still come out anyway.”
Kate McOmber, interim CEO of the Greater Hartford Arts Council, said she can tell people are clamoring for opportunities to celebrate and see each other after many have spent the past 12 months spent isolated at home.
“There’s lots of conversations around town about, ‘What are you doing? What are you doing? How are we going to bring these things together?” she said. “I think the optimism about what the summer could be is great.”
Bronin said he will work with the cultural institutions and arts council to make sure they have the resources needed to activate the city this summer.
The mayor said he is open to the possibility of using some COVID-19 relief funding to support events if possible. He added that there is more to learn about what relief money can be spent on.
“We’ll be working closely with the council and with our community as we develop that plan,” Bronin said.
Richard Rosenthal, president of the Max Restaurant Group, is looking to re-open Trumbull Kitchen, with its expansive outdoor patio, in May. He says he would consider hiring live music to play but tends to think only larger events and perhaps free parking will draw people back to Hartford.
Bronin says some groups have been waiting for a green light from the city to plan their events, and he delivered that in his address Monday.
“Others have been assuming they would be virtual again, but I’m encouraging them to figure out how to do in person events, safely and responsibly — because weneed that energy,” Bronin said.
Charles Christie was one of those organizers until last when he says Bronin made an appeal to the team behind the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz to hold the event live in Bushnell Park this year.
Christie, the festival’s president, says they were planning a repeat of the $60,000, virtual event they put on last summer. Now, they’re scrambling to raise five times that amount to bring the real festival back from July 16-18.
“People just- they need hope, so they’re looking for a great opportunity to come out. And we have such a diverse, peaceful event, it lends itself to what the mayor is talking about,” Christie said. “The city is coming back and we’re an anchor of that.”
“It definitely could be a great Connecticut coming out party,” he added.