Lacombe Music in the Park Draws Big Crowd for Opening Night

For the fourth year in a row, Music in the Park took centre stage during the Community Market here in Lacombe, and serenaded the crowd of young and old alike on Wednesday night.

The first band on the Echo Energy stage this year was the Flat Iron Jazz band, a local favourite for many.

The stage will play host to a number of different musical acts as the summer goes on, and they will come from all over Alberta.

Ellen Corea is a Committee Member for Music in the Park, and she explains where the idea came from.

"It was an idea of a good friend of our’s who sat on the Committee, and his name was Lan Lawrence, and he was a musician and mentor. And he actually got an idea about four years ago, to bring quality music into Lacombe, offer it for free on a weekly basis in the summer. He was a musician who actually played in hundreds of bands, and he pulled in every chit that he had to get different musicians coming as far as Calgary, Edmonton, all around to come and play for us... The musicians loved it".

Sadly, Lan passed away a few years ago, but his musical legacy lives on.

The new outdoor stage was made possible thanks to the Echo Lacombe Association's community granting program, which sees proceeds from energy sales go directly into a fund that local organizations can apply for.

The Lacombe Performing Arts Centre received a $20,000 cheque back in October for the new stage.

Music in the Park goes every Wednesday starting at 6:30 until August 30th, with a different musical act being featured every week.

July 1st will see a special concert at the Lacombe Athletic Park, with three different bands playing all afternoon.