A summer strong hold in Park City has been live music – but due to COVID-19, large outdoor gatherings won’t be happening this year. Still, Mountain Town Music is busy working on plans to bring the music to the people.
Most summers, Mountain Town Music programs more than 300 musical acts during the summer months. While that won’t happen this year, Executive Director Brian Richards is hopeful that there will be music in the mountains. Situations like this he says require them to stay positive and think creatively.
“One of the most important things about Mountain Town Music” Richards said, “is we’re a unifier and we bring a ton of joy to the community. So, what we're trying to do is figure out how we can still do that this summer with the 20 persons gathering limitations and so you know we're toying around with the concept called the Door to Door Tour 2020 and essentially will bring the concerts to the people.”
What that ultimately looks like he says they haven’t worked out – or gotten approval for - but he thinks there’s a way to keep the musicians playing and people enjoying live music.
“Essentially what people will do,” he said, “is they'll be able to reach out and make a donation to Mountain Town Music and you know we’ll bring a musician to either their residence, their street, their rooftops, their garage, their driveway within those 20 limitations gathering.”
Neighbors could hang with those households on their own driveways or cul-de sacs and enjoy the music together, while staying safe.
He’s also thinking about what he is calling neighborhood happy hours.
“Where we invite people to sit in their front yard and we’ll roll a band down the street,” he explained. “We believe that music is powerful. We believe that music is a unifier. We believe that music, especially in times like this, is really important to people so we're going to continue to get creative on how we can bring that to the people because I think now more than ever this summer, Park City is gonna need it.”
He's excited to see what the arts and culture organizations come up with, once they understand what they have to work with based on the county’s limitations of gatherings.
“I have a feeling this could be one of the most unique and most memorable summers ever in Park City,” he said.
He hopes to have something rolled out in the next week or so…
“The idea is to take all the musicians that are that are losing gigs this summer,” he said, “and we’ll put them in like a drop down menu so you have the opportunity to order Lash LaRue let's say, and then once you have Lash LaRue, they get removed from the queue and it goes on down the line. Because ultimately, we want to replace the gigs for our musicians because they’re losing a ton of opportunities this summer. And we want to support our 1099 crew. like our sound engineers, and all the people that are going to lose gigs this summer.”
It’s important for people to support them – in order to make sure they can come back next summer.
“This will be donation based for the most part. There will be some free opportunities scattered throughout the summer. But we need people to support Mountain Town Music in order us in order for us to keep the lights on going into 2021 because what we face in 2021 is a significantly reduced grant funding.”
Because the grants are based on sales tax revenues, they know that there will be less funding available. He says he will make an appeal to the RAP and Restaurant Tax committees that they lift the restrictions this year and next on how the money can be spent, so that they can continue to operate into the future.
