With a successful Sidewalk Sales now in hand, downtown New Canaan is poised for its first extended installment of the Pop Up Park at South and Elm.
Phil Williams, owner of New Canaan Music, is overseeing the live music that’s coming to the Pop Up Park on three Thursday nights in August 2016. Credit: Michael Dinan
This year, the Pop Up Park—to be in place continuously from Aug. 5 to 28, following town approval—will offer not only new umbrellas and seating but a new feature every Thursday evening: Live music.
The ‘Thursday Night Music’ series, overseen by New Canaan Music owner Phil Williams, will run 6 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 11, 18 and 25 and feature “a good cross-section of our music community here,” he said.
“We’ll have some local talent, New Canaan college kids and an adult band as well,” said Williams, a New Canaan Chamber of Commerce board member whose store regularly supports performing arts productions at Saxe and the high school. “These are people we’ve met through the store—some are employees, some are customers, some are instructors. It’s a nice time of day to be out listening to music.”
The Pop Up Park was set up during the 2016 New Canaan Sidewalk Sale. Credit: Michael Dinan
Though the Pop Up Park this summer will offer plenty of activities for downtown visitors—plans call for things to do around the Olympics, a mom’s group organizing low-key outdoor playing, mini-golf and more live music during the Taste of the Town Stroll—“there will plenty of downtime, too,” said Tucker Murphy, a founder of the volunteer committee that oversees the makeshift park.
“People can just go in and read a book,” she said. “We want everyone to have a place where they can bring people to town, and it’s for someone who wants to sit and hang out while others can go and do their thing. We want it to be a whole family-geared area.”
The town has agreed to support the Pop Up Park this year by helping out with garbage pickup, and allowing it to remain in place through the weekdays in August that it runs will unburden the park’s volunteers of onerous set-up and breakdown.
The decision to re-boot the Pop Up Park follows a summer that saw it put off after a group of merchants expressed concerns about its effects on traffic, parking, business and aesthetics. Those concerns have been addressed and merchants have been invited to help organize the Pop Up Park, committee members have said.
If the three weeks in August go well, the committee may seek to expand the Pop Up Park “season” in the summer of 2017, officials said.
Here’s the full Pop Up Park schedule:
August 5th
- 2 P.M. delivery of furniture and Park Set up
- YMCA arrives 3 P.M.
- Opening Ceremonies Parade – arrive at 4:15
- 4:30 parade on sidewalks
- 5 P.M.-7 P.M. face painting, arts and crafts
August 6th
- 10AM-2 P.M. Emergency Services Demonstrations and Awareness Day
- (May include FD to feature and extrication demonstration, ladder flown, bullex extinguisher trainer. NCVAC will have rig for tours and Hands Free CPR training)
August 9th
- 3 P.M.-4:30 Story Hour and Ice Cream
August 11th
- 6:30 P.M.-8:30 P.M. Live Music featuring the “Moses Bros.” sponsored by NC Music
August 12
- 6:30 P.M.-8:30 P.M. Live Music by Cluster Funk
August 13 and 14
- Mini Golf all day
August 18
- 6:30 P.M.-8:30 P.M. Live Music featuring “Frogtown Road” band sponsored by NC Music
August 22
- Family Dance 4:30 P.M.-6:30 P.M. (rain date August 23rd 2:30 P.M.-4:30 P.M.) brought to you by NCP4K (New Canaan Parents 4 Kids)
August 23
- Talent Show 4:30 P.M.-6:30 P.M. (rain date August 24th 2:30-4:30 P.M.) brought to you by NCP4K
August 24th
- International Social
August 26th
- “All Out for Autism” road race
August 27th
- Young Entrepreneurs Fair 4:30 P.M.-6:30 P.M. (rain date August 28th 2:30 P.M.-4:30 P.M.
Very cool.