The Alpine Community Center, located at 1830 Alpine Blvd. is hosting a summer concert in the park at 4 p.m. on Aug. 29.
Community Center Executive Director Shane Greer said they are thrilled to announce the concert will be free for members; memberships themselves have been free since the start of 2021.
“We’ve redone our membership format so it is free and it will stay like that so we’re inclusive of the entire community,” Greer said.
Although the main attraction is Solid Brass, a local funk and rock band heavy on horn band standards, Greer said community center leaders would like to feature local groups as opening acts.
“We’ve been telling everyone the event starts at 4 p.m. but we scheduled in about an hour and a half until the main band, and I am planning to find a few Alpine residents or youth groups to come out and perform ahead of time,” Greer said.
Although he said he pictured anything from an adult family-friendly band to a kids’ group, ideally “it would be nice to keep it small-town, community feeling” and pull from local groups.
Community center staff will be serving “something simple and summery like hamburgers and hotdogs,” at the concert he said, although residents are welcome to bring their own picnics to enjoy.
“We will probably come up with some treats for the kids like ice cream or slushies, and might be selling alcohol for adults. We want everyone to just relax and have a great time with fun music in a community setting,” Greer said.
Center staff are eager to start hosting monthly events again as the concert marks a tentative return to regular programming, “like we did pre-COVID,” but are taking it slow as the pandemic draws down.
“We are looking ahead and we’re in the process of planning weekend movies for fall, ideally a series of fun movies to carry us until Halloween. We are pulling together sponsors. Matt Mauzy, who owns Mauzy heating, is sponsoring a large projector screen so we can start putting together that program as summer winds down,” Greer said.
Even though the pandemic appears to be lifting, he and other center staff don’t feel entirely comfortable planning a full bill of events at this point.
“I don’t want everyone to overextend themselves then have restrictions put in place again as the Delta variant emerges. You always think ‘things can’t go back to the way they were’ but after last year, anything is possible,” Greer said.
For now, he said, a concert is “a good start”. Members can register for the concert online at www.alpinecommunitycenter.com
