By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
SOUTHGATE – The city’s long-awaited free summer concert series kicks off at 7 p.m. June 28 with “Toppermost,” a Beatles tribute band, as the first of four live music events scheduled for the Market Center Park amphitheater.
Presented by Southgate Cultural Arts and Special Events, the Beatles tribute will be followed by Elvis Night featuring Fred Wolfe on July 12; Wisteria on July 26 and “Park It” night on Aug. 2 featuring live entertainment, vendor booths and an outdoor movie.
The summer concerts join a growing menu of activities planned for the first full season of the ambitious Market Center Park in the Southgate Shopping Center, 13697 Eureka. Phase One of the overhaul of the former Montgomery Ward site officially opened last fall, and the amphitheater and pavilion last year played host to a performance by the Open Book Theatre Company.
Calendar highlights for 2016 include the second year of a weekend Farmers Market at the Center, a late summer groundbreaking on a $70,000 paved, landscaped pathway between the Park and Trenton Road. And a $200,000 concessions renovation project from the Southgate Downtown Development Authority and Crystal Gardens.
Phase One of the project – the pavilion and amphitheater – was a joint $400,000 investment by the DDA, local interests and state grant funds.
Sponsors for the concert series include Team Rehabilitation, Dave Dezsi, Ana Mitchell, Eureka Farm Market, the law offices of John Graziani and family, City Councilman Bill Colovos, City Councilwoman Karen George, and Southgate Dental Group.
For more information call 734-258-3035 or go to www.southgate-mi.org
(James Mitchell can be reached at [email protected])