More than just a walk in the park

Site will host events that include outdoor market, concerts and car shows

Madison Village Park should be a fun and entertaining place throughout the summer of 2021.

The village Concerts in the Park series will return for its 27th consecutive year, while the Outdoor Market is embarking on its sixth season. In addition, the Madison Community Social is back on the 2021 summer calendar after a one-year hiatus.

“I’m pretty excited about some of things we have on the horizon for the park this summer,” village Administrator Dwayne Bailey said.

The Madison Community Improvement Corp. is spearheading a campaign to raise funds for the 2021 concert series, Bailey said, at the Feb. 22 Village Council meeting.

MCIC took over managing the event after the former organizer of the Concerts in the Park series, the Rev. Donna Maruschak, stepped down at the end of the 2020 season.

“MCIC is spending some time trying to approach (fundraising) from a different angle and trying to grow (the concert series) a little bit,” Bailey said. “It’s been a very nice event for the last 26 years, but we’d like to reach a lot more people.”

Bailey said in a previous News-Herald story that village government will continue in its role of booking musical entertainment for the concerts. Although the series has some musical acts that have become fixtures over the years, he said the village was able attract some new performers in 2020.

Bailey said he wants “to be able to continue that trend just to keep some variety going and maybe reach out to some different age groups.”

The Concerts in the Park series typically kicks off in early June, with shows every Thursday night through early September. Musical performances start at 7 p.m. and take place on the same night as the Outdoor Market, which commences at 5 p.m. The concerts run until 9 p.m., while the market wraps up at 8.

“I’ve already received numerous calls from new vendors who want to participate in our outdoor market,” Bailey said, during the Feb. 22 council meeting. “I think the market did really well this past summer and I think it’s going to continue to do really well and grow from there.”

The market wraps up each year on the same Thursday in September as the concerts.

Last year, Madison Village instituted regulations for the outdoor market and summer concerts to comply with guidelines from the Ohio Department of Health and other regulatory agencies to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Some of the rules for the festivities included spacing vendors 10 to 15 feet apart; requiring all of the merchants and their employees to wear masks at all times; and maintaining social distance of 6 feet between all groups of customers.

Masks for guests visiting the park for the market or concerts were required when these individuals were unable to space themselves 6 feet apart from people who were not household members.

This year, Madison Village also has decided to bring back the Community Social, which was called off in 2020.

“With the precautions we took last season for the events in the park, we had no contact tracing associate our events with a case of COVID-19,” Bailey said. “We are comfortable that those same precautions, along with increasing vaccinations and the steady decline in cases, allows us to provide some safe, much-needed diversion for the community.”

The 2021 Community Social will be held from 4 to 7 p.m., June 23. At the 2019 social, guests had the opportunity to check out displays staffed by local merchants and Madison area safety forces. The event also featured live music, door prizes, and free hot dogs and chips provided by Madison Village Mayor Sam Britton, Madison Village Council and Madison Township trustees.

Meanwhile, the organizer of the annual classic car show in Madison Village Park also is gearing up for another season. Madison Township resident Art Mason said the event runs from 5 to 8 p.m. every Tuesday from mid-April through mid-October, weather permitting.

In 2020, classic-car owners who displayed their vehicles and visitors to the weekly exhibitions all abided by rules requiring masks and proper social distancing, Mason noted.

“We didn’t have any problems at all,” he said.

Madison Village Park is located along West Main Street, at the intersection of River Street in the community’s downtown.