Concerts in the Park – Sacramento

sacramento_concertsEntertainment in summer 2009 promises to be cheap and easy in Sacramento. No, that isn’t an offensive sexual innuendo. It is in fact a genuine observation. In an initiative that began on at the beginning of summer and will end on August 14th 2009, every Friday will see cost free concerts held outdoors in California’s state capital.

The event is somewhat unoriginally called, ‘Friday Night Concerts in the Park,’ and is an idea that has been brought to fruition by the Downtown Sacramento Partnership. The concerts will each feature a headlining artist plus a couple of different supporting artists or groups and will run from 5pm until 9pm every single Friday until mid-August. The venue is Cesar Chavez Plaza.

The schedule has already kicked off, but don’t worry if you have yet to catch one. There are still few Fridays ahead. Headliners yet to perform include Kate Gaffney, The Snobs, Baby Grand, The Brodys, Rowdy Kate and Sol Peligro. In most cases,it seems like the support acts lined up play a similar genre of music to the headliner, so it’s well worth going down on nights that an artist who plays a style you like is headlining. And the good news is that it’s easy enough to check out the artists ahead of time, as the website listed at the end of this post has a full schedule with the Myspace links for every artist performing.

What is particularly spectacular about this event is the sheer volume of unsigned artists this is going to offer showcasing too and a proportion of these artists and groups are local to Sacramento as well. Finally, an initiative that offers some high level exposure to talented independent musicians in their own area, who might otherwise have had no such opportunity.

So if you’re in the Sacramento area, it’s well worth checking out one of the gigs. Can you think of a better way to spend a Friday night than soaking up an outdoor music concert and NOT having to pay for it?

MORE INFO ON Sacramento Concerts