PORTAGE, MI - Organizers of the first Celery Flats Music Festival on Sunday, July 13 featuring eight Kalamazoo area bluegrass and Americana acts in a free concert say the event has many purposes.
The noon to 4:30 p.m. music festival at the Celery Flats Historical Area is a chance to hear some of the best bluegrass bands around in a concert-friendly park and it's a fundraiser for the new Friends of the Parks group formed to support Portage's 18 parks.
Sponsored by the Portage Park Board and the K'zoo Folklife Organization, the afternoon of music will feature Schlitz Creek Bluegrass Band, Deadwood Bluegrass Band, Great Lakes Grass, The Crescendo Fiddlers, Joel Colburn, Patricia Pettinga and Bill Willmeng, Carrie McFerrin and Steve Barber.
Admission is a donation to the Friends of the Parks.
John Speeter, head of K'zoo Folklife, said his group approached Portage to put on the Celery Flats Music Festival after learning the city was cancelling its Summer Entertainment Series for budgetary reasons. Speeter's band, Schlitz Creek, had played several times in Portage, enjoyed the venues and wanted to bring bluegrass music back to Celery Flats.
'We thought if we could find a good cause we wanted our local musicians to go back and see that beautiful park,' Speeter said. 'It's a beautiful place to play.'
Bill Deming, Portage parks, recreation and public services director, said the city was more than happy to host the concert and appreciated the KFO's organizing it.
'The Park Board was looking to kick off its Friends of the Parks group and all of a sudden we got an email from K'zoo Folklife that all these groups want to do something in the park,' Deming said. 'They are combining all their services for no cost. It's a charitable thing and that's outstanding.'
Deming said that with the loss of the summer entertainment series this year, the city has been trying to find community groups to pick up sponsorship of some events that had been popular over the 25 years of the SES. Music had always been a centerpiece of the summer series.
'We're trying to get the community engaged in these events,' Deming said. 'Music in the park. How can you beat it?'
Susan Williams, chairwoman of the Portage Park Board, said the Friends of the Parks is a new organization devoted to boosting the Portage parks in any way they can, from fundraising to volunteer services.
'We are a board that generates no money,' Williams said. 'So when they came with the idea of a fundraising concert it was really quite easy for us to say yes.'
The Friends of the Parks is similar to the Friends of the Portage District Library and Friends of the Portage Senior Center, though it has not yet obtained its 501c3 tax status. From providing docents to lead tours of the historic buildings at Celery Flats to fundraising events, the new volunteer organization is excited about making the Portage parks even better, Williams said.
It also has a new website that explains the organization and ways to get involved: http://ift.tt/1qZIzik.
'The city of Portage has done a fabulous job of keeping up the parks,' Williams said, 'but some things can be done by volunteers to help out.'
At the Celery Flats Music Festival, there will also be activities for children, Speeter said, including Steve Barber putting on children's shows at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. at the Celery Flats Amphitheatre. There will also be an instrument petting zoo inside the restored 1856 one-room schoolhouse at Celery Flats. Kids can come in and see demonstrations or handle the instruments such as a banjo and guitar.
Also performing at the festival will be the Celery City Cloggers.
Performers will play on a stage in front of the 1931 restored grain elevator. Concert goers can bring a blanket or lawn chairs. There will be food concessions.
If it rains, the festival will be inside the Hayloft Theatre at Celery Flats.
Tom Haroldson covers Portage, Vicksburg and Schoolcraft for MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette. Contact him at haroldso@charter.net.
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