Shelter Gardens concert series returns Sunday night

COLUMBIA — Grab your lawn chairs, blankets and picnic dinners. The 33rd annual Shelter Gardens concert series returns at 7 p.m. Sunday.

The six-concert series will run on Sundays throughout the summer at Shelter Gardens, behind the Shelter Insurance offices on 1817 W. Broadway. Concerts are free, and patrons are encouraged to bring blankets and lawn chairs. There are no bathroom facilities in the gardens, but concerts usually last one hour, said Terry Hume, special events coordinator for Shelter Insurance.

Concerts may be canceled because of weather. In such cases, Shelter Insurance will make announcements on KFRU-AM 1400 and KPLA-FM 101.5 and will post notices outside the gardens. A concert may be canceled because of rain at the time of the scheduled concert or because of the gardens being too wet from a previous storm.

The concerts will feature the Columbia Community Band, Lisa Rose and Hot House, Ironweed and Swampweed, Cathy Barton and Dave Para and the Norm Ruebling Band.

The concert series has grown over the years from children’s piano recitals, magicians and jugglers to a waiting list accommodating more performers than there are concerts in the summer, Hume said.

The series tries to get new performers each year, and this year the schedule has matched up with that of Lisa Rose, a jazz performer the concert series has attempted to book for years, Hume said.

The Columbia Community Band will open and close the series, a tradition for many years. Hume said the band tends to play music for a variety of people and ages.

John Patterson, director of the Columbia Community Band, looks forward to opening the series again. The 70-member band will play an old-style band concert with a variety of traditional patriotic tunes in honor of Flag Day.

“We like to mix it up and cater to the mood of the evening, of an outdoor concert,” he said.

Patterson also enjoys the Shelter Gardens atmosphere.

“The crowds are so responsive,” he said.

Hume expects there will be anywhere from 500 to 750 patrons Sunday night. Attendance has fluctuated from as low as 500 to as high as 1,000 in the past. While attendance is usually relatively steady, certain musical groups can bring larger crowds.

“We’ve had some groups with a strong group of followers who come out in droves,” she said.

Many times shuttles from nursing homes or foreign guests of MU will attend the concerts as well, Hume said. “It’s a nice melting pot of people," she said.

Hume said that concert patrons tend to arrive at the gardens early with picnic dinners to mingle and enjoy their food before the band begins to play.

GetAbout Columbia will sponsor a “guided ride” to the last concert at 6:45 p.m. on July 26 from the corner of Ash Street and Greenwood Avenue.

Janet Godon, program coordinator for the PedNet Coalition, is working with GetAbout Columbia’s Neighbors On The Go program and its guided bicycle rides. Godon says the route to Shelter Gardens, which is less than one mile, is for beginners with a little road experience.