Music in the Park 2005 in Gowanda

     Performing at the Thursday, Aug. 11 Music in the Park concert held in Gowanda’s beautiful Chang-Hu Park will be the “Smilin’ Saints” Dixieland Band. Concerts begin at 6:30 p.m.

     This well-known group of musicians will play in the New Orleans-type of “laid back” groove. Members include Pete Pepke, Art Cooney, Bill Kane, Frank Farina, Ralph Rasmusson. Pete Fountain, Steve Bush and Jim Steffan. Their musical selections will include “Bye Bye Blues,” “Carolina in the Morning” and “When the Saints Go Marching In,” among other popular Dixieland tunes.

     The public is invited to enjoy these free concerts held every Thursday evening through the end of August under the gazebo at Chang-Hu Park in Gowanda. The music begins at 6:30 p.m. and concert attendees are invited to bring their own lawn chairs for their comfort and are certainly welcome to bring a picnic supper if they wish. This year, members of the Gowanda Community Youth and members of Boy Scout Troop 611 will be selling refreshments at the concerts. Other organizations interested in selling treats at the concerts should contact Sue Torrance at 532-0728 for more information. In case of rain, concerts will be held at the First United Methodist Church on North Chapel Street at 7 p.m.

     Funds for the Music in the Park series are provided by the villages of Gowanda and Perrysburg, the towns of Persia, Perrysburg, Collins and Dayton, a donation from the Gowanda Kiwanis Club and a grant from the Cattaraugus County Council for the Arts, through a decentralization grant from New York State. All concerts are free and open to the public.