Ashby Band to celebrate the summer by performing

Will play on July 3 at Allen Field

The Ashby Band will return to Allen Field for a July 3rd celebration featuring a concert of patriotic music at 7:30 p.m., followed by a bonfire by the Ashby Fire Department.

Musical selections include marches, American song medleys, an Armed Forces Salute, “American Civil War Fantasy,” and “Star Spangled Spectacular” by George M. Cohan.

The bonfire will be lit following “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

“The July 3rd concert and bonfire are back after a two-year hiatus,” said Bob Healy, Ashby Band director. “All the concerts are a celebration of the return to normalcy in our lives.”

The 32- piece professional concert band will continue its summer season with six concerts on the town common.

All concerts are scheduled for 7:30 p. m. and will feature marches, light classical overtures, show tunes, pop medleys, children’s favorites and big band numbers.

Concerts will be held Wednesdays, July 6, 13, 20, and 27, Aug. 3 and 10.

Some of this year’s highlights include music from “Grease,” “The Kind and I,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Les Miserables,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Porgy and Bess,” along with tributes to Benny Goodman, the Beach Boys, Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra.

Composers featured this year include Marvin Hamlisch, Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin, Gilbert and Sullivan, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Irving Berlin.

Children selections include highlights from “The Little Mermaid,” “Frozen,” “The Lion King,” along with “Disney at the Movies,” and “Disney at the Oscars.”

“Ashby concerts are a flashback in time when families gathered to socialize and listen to music for all age groups,” he said. “It’s a great New England tradition.”

As always refreshments will be provided by various groups in the town of Ashby.

Rain dates will be held at the end of the season.