Music in the City Park History 

Music in the Park originated during the summer of 1996.  Local families & groups donated their time and talents each Wednesday evening throughout the summer months.  The first couple years the entertainment wasn’t regular, but it eventually grew to be every Wednesday evening in June and July.  Through the years, interest has grown and we now enjoy entertainment till mid-August.

Music in the Park continued each summer until 2009, the year of the flood.   The historic 1931 City Park Bandshell, damaged from flooding events in 2009 and 2011, was declared structurally unsafe and music in park relocated to the courthouse lawn for several years.   In late summer, 2014, work began to move the City Park Bandshell to a slightly new location in the park.   It is now placed on a nonconcrete foundation.  The Bandshell withstood the moving process with very little additional structural damage.  The programs returned to the bandshell in July 2015.  Fully planning on returning to the bandshell the summer of 2016, the flood protection construction project began at the entrance of City Park that spring.  Programs returned to the City Park Bandshell fully the summer of 2017!   

The summer of 2020, we were faced with a new dilemma, COVID-19 epidemic.   It was a time of masks, social distancing and limited activities.   There was no longer a “Normal”.  The year began like a drive-in theatre!   It worked!   The show must go on… and they did.  By mid-June we were back in City Park where everyone was respectful and social distanced successfully.