North Shore Views

Thornwood Park Concert

There are so many things to love about summer on the North Shore, but for me one of the highlights has to be the Thornwood Park Concert, right here in Kenilworth Gardens.

In its sixth year, the annual concert is the brainchild of Terri and Tony Lorenz, who organized the first concert back in 2005 and have continued to be the driving force behind it. They had moved from the city and bought a house across the street from the park. And they thought, “Wow, wouldn’t this be the perfect venue for a fun neighborhood event.” And the Thornwood Park Concert was born.

The performers? Local dads (and one mom) who play in rock bands (for fun). It was a big hit that first year and has increased in popularity ever since. The concert is held on a Sunday afternoon and families wander over after nap time with strollers, wagons, bikes, picnics and coolers to enjoy the music and visit with friends.

This year’s concert features five bands. The first four are made up of Harper parents (and one Romona parent).

• Name It
• East of Edens
• Lucky Jackson Band
• Jimbo Jones
• Legs Akimbo

A new addition this year is the junior concert featuring local artists under 18, who will kick-off the event at 2:00 pm. There will also be other fun things for kids to do while parents enjoy the music: face painting, balloon animals and a bouncy house.

Last but not least, we’ll have a visit from the Wilmette Police in their squad cars and the Fire Department. For the kids, the highlight of the day is when the firetruck shoots a stream of water high in the air for the kids to run under and cool off.

This is truly a neighborhood event, and the $5000 cost of producing it is entirely funded by passing the hat among the folks who come to enjoy it, plus a couple of local sponsors.  (Most of the hat-passing is done online at the concert web site). Any money that’s left over after the concert expenses are paid goes to fund things for the playground or for maintenance of the beautiful  Prairie Garden along Kenilworth Avenue.

This year’s  concert will be held on Sunday, July 11 from 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Thornwood Park is in the Kenilworth Gardens neighborhood in Wilmette. It is bounded by Kenilworth Avenue, Dartmouth Street and Thornwood Avenue, catty-corner to Harper School.

You can get more info about the concert at www.thornwoodparkconcerts.com. If you would like to come and enjoy great music and a fun afternoon, please consider making a donation to help offset the concert’s cost. You can do this right on the web site.

Tags: Thornwood Park

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 at 8:51 am and is filed under Community Events, Things to do, Wilmette. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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