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Aside from a lone bicyclist taking a break, the area around Community Park’s big bandstand was quiet on a recent afternoon. That should change Sunday evening, when Pilot Club of Jacksonville opens its summer concert series with a performance by Land of Lincoln Chorus.<\/p>\n
Angela Bauer\/Journal-Courier<\/p>\n
Along with high school and college graduations and swimming pool openings around the region, one sure sign of summer in west-central Illinois is the start of Pilot Club of Jacksonville\u2019s Concerts in the Park series.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019ve been in Pilot over 20 years and I know it was here probably at least 10 years before that, if not more,\u201d series organizer Vickie Austin said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good project for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The free series, which sees musical acts from the region perform at 6\u00a0p.m. Sundays at the big bandstand in Community Park, is a popular one, Austin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve just been doing it so long, people have already started asking, \u2018When are you starting again?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The wait is nearly over, with Springfield-based barbershop music group Land of Lincoln Chorus opening the season on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of become tradition for Land of Lincoln Chorus to do that first one in the summer,\u201d Austin said.<\/p>\n
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The series will wrap up as August does.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 13 weeks of concerts and they\u2019re all spoken for,\u201d Austin said. \u201cAs usual, we\u2019re so grateful for so many singers and groups that are willing to step up and do this for us and do it for nothing. For the community, they do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every performer has something unique to offer, but one highlight of this season\u2019s lineup is the July 19 performance, Austin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year we had something special, which we\u2019ve repeated again this year,\u201d Austin said. \u201cJacksonville\u00a0Drumline Institute is going to come and perform for us. People seem to like that (last year). They really did. Those kids are wonderful \u2014 it\u2019s just kind of special.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The club has a backup location in case conditions aren\u2019t suitable for an outdoor concert, Austin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst Baptist Church has been kind enough to allow us to use their sanctuary when it rains or if it\u2019s extremely hot,\u201d she said. \u201cWe already have two Sundays we\u2019re going to have it there (because) the singers would prefer it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pilot Club members also appreciate the community\u2019s continued support of the series, Austin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year, every Sunday,\u201d the community turns out to support the series, Austin said. \u201cIt just makes us feel good to do it for the community here.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The full concert lineup includes:<\/p>\n
\u2022 June 7 \u2014 Land of Lincoln Chorus<\/p>\n
\u2022 June 14 \u2014 The Peeks and Tom Jones<\/p>\n
\u2022 June 21 \u2014 Just Friends<\/p>\n
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\u2022 June 28 \u2014 Robert Sampson<\/p>\n
\u2022 July 5 \u2014 Brett Burchard<\/p>\n
\u2022 July 12 \u2014 Pam and Danny Lovelace<\/p>\n
\u2022 July 19 \u2014 Jacksonville Drumline Institute<\/p>\n
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\u2022 July 26 \u2014 Rod Nicholson with Aaron and Rick Barger<\/p>\n
\u2022 Aug. 2 \u2014 New Jerusalem Singers (at First Baptist Church)<\/p>\n
\u2022 Aug. 9 \u2014 Terry Brennan (at First Baptist Church)<\/p>\n
\u2022 Aug. 16 \u2014 Two By Two<\/p>\n
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\u2022 Aug. 23 \u2014 Community Summer Band<\/p>\n
\u2022 Aug. 30 \u2014 Rob Brogdon<\/p>\n
Each concert begins at 6 p.m. at the big bandstand in Community Park, with the exception of the Aug. 2 and Aug. 9 concerts, which will be at First Baptist Church. Admission is free. Those attending the concerts at the park are welcome to bring a picnic meal to enjoy during the performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aside from a lone bicyclist taking a break, the area around Community Park’s big bandstand was quiet on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6919,116,118,117,115,96365,278],"class_list":["post-298273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-features","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-news","tag-regional-events","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}