Concerts in the Park to return socially distant on July 8

The city of Painesville is taking steps toward returning toward pre-novel coronavirus levels of public interaction with a limited number of public events having been rescheduled or restructured to accommodate social distancing guidelines.

The city’s farmer’s market recently resumed operations at Veteran’s Park, and beginning in July the park will also see the return of Concerts in the Park within the park’s gazebo stage.

The series returns July 8 with a performance by Erin Nicole’s Centric Soul and concludes Aug. 26 with The Pop Tarts. The concerts are sponsored by the Painesville Community Improvement Corporation but being managed and overseen by the city’s Recreation Department.

“These concerts typically get 100 to 150 people,” said Painesville Director of Public Lands and Recreation Michelle LaPuma. “We are anticipating that there is a possibility that we would have more than that because it seems like people are anxious to do some extra activities this summer.”

City Communication Director Kathleen Sullivan highlighted the added variety they sought to include

on stage.

“This year they really tried to add some diversity to our line up, so we asked the community what kind of new bands they would like to see,” Sullivan said. “So you’ll notice we have a Soul band and Mariachi band based on that feedback.”

In addition to maintaining six feet of distance between those in attendance, the events will eliminate their typical lemonade and popcorn and no food trucks will be present. Facial coverings have not been made mandatory at this time.

“We were able to determine by the size of our park that we could easily have about 300 people out there and still social distance,” LaPuma said. “We are going to announce at the beginning and throughout the event to remember to socially distance. We also will have staff there to ask people if they need to move over, and to remind them of social distancing and to remember where their neighbors are.

“You can have a whole family on a blanket but you want to have a little bit of distance between the next

family or lawn chair.” When asked, LaPuma agreed that the city’s ability to effectively produce an event of this size while maintaining proper distancing will help inform how they continue running events safely while COVID-19 is still an active risk to the general public.

“It helps because we are hoping to hold some of our fall events, yes,” she said.

The much larger annual Party in the Park summer concert event which also takes place in Veteran’s Park remains canceled for 2020.