June 8, 2016 – Paul Morden, The Observer – Live music has a permanent home again on the beach at Grand Bend on the stage of a $320,000 band shell set to be dedicated this weekend with concerts, food and refreshments.
A dozen bands and performers are scheduled to be part of the event, running Saturday and Sunday 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., with a reception Saturday afternoon and a ribbon-cutting at 5 p.m.
Grand Bend Rotarian Jim Southcott led the effort to raise money for the band shell, following the launch in 2014 of a successful Summer Sunset Sounds free concert series on the community’s main public beach.
Construction of the Rotary Community Stage began earlier this year, and was still underway this week, said Glen Baillie, a Rotarian and president of the Grand Bend and Area Chamber of Commerce.
A waterproof membrane was being installed on the band shell roof Tuesday, and organizers weren’t certain if stars designed to recognize donors would attached to the new structure in time for this week’s celebrations, Baillie said.
“The ice cap is melting faster than that stage is moving,” he said about the project, but added enough work will be completed to allow the weekend’s celebration to go ahead.
“When you figure we used to use plywood, this is fine,” Baillie said.
“My back is going to be very thankful.”
In previous summers, he and other volunteers assembled and dismantled a temporary stage before and after each of the Summer Sunset Sounds series concerts.
The design of the band shell ties in with the rest of the plaza at the main beach, and acoustics and sight lines were taken into account when it was designed, Baillie said.
“And, it’s on the beach, the best beach on Lake Huron.”
He launched the summer concert series, with the help of a grant from Lambton County’s Creative County Fund and contributions from local businesses, organizing free concerts held Sunday and holiday Monday evenings on the beach.
The concerts were a hit and the project to create a permanent stage began, with the aim of honouring the tradition of live music stretching back to the former Lakeview Casino dance hall that opened in the community in 1917 and hosted performances by Louis Armstrong, Rudy Vallee, Guy Lombardo, Tommy Dorsey, Gordi Tapp and others for more than half a century.
A fire destroyed the dance hall building in the early 1980s.
“Some of the folks in Grand Bend have very, very fond memories of music on the beach, and thought it would be wonderful idea to re-create that,” David Campbell, chairperson of the Grand Bend Community Foundation, said in a press release.
The foundation is one of the supporters of the band shell project.
Baillie said the Rotary Club of Grand Bend also supported the plaza developed several years ago on the main beach.
“They just decided it would be a really good idea to finish it off and put a stage there,” he said.
The club took on the project with a promise it wouldn’t cost the municipality any money.
“At that time, we thought it would be about $180,000, and it turned out to be $320,000,” Baillie said.
But donations from local residents and supporters, as well as a federal grant, helped the project move ahead.
“People wanted music back on the beach,” Baillie said.
“It was really heartwarming.”
The weekend’s opening celebrations have been designed to also pay tribute to the former Lakeview Casino and include a total of 16 hours of free music by more than a dozen local performers, including Emm Gryner, Lil’ Chicago, Michael Vanhevel, Ruth’s Hat and Josh Geddis.
The Kettle and Stony Point First Nation Ahnishenahbek Drum Group is scheduled to perform a traditional welcome.
A reception for donors is set for 3 p.m. Saturday at the Grand Bend Beach House observation deck. It’s scheduled to open to the public at 4 p.m., and will feature a tasting menu by local restaurants, as well as locally-made cider, wine and beer provided by Twin Pines Orchards and Cider House, Alton Farms Estate Winery and the Refined Fool Brewing Company.
The summer concert series is set to begin its third season July 4, 7 p.m., with a show by Sarah Smith.
Posted in: Headlines