The fourth annual Concerts on the Green series is still a few months away, but the pressing issue of funding has already reared its ugly head. To date, The Pacific Beach Town Council (PBTC) has raised only $4,000 of the $11,000 needed to host the family-friendly event.
The series presents concerts on four Sunday afternoons between July 23 and Aug. 13. The bands are local, the admission is free and demand is always high for a comfortable spot in Kate Sessions Park.
“It’s a real positive event for the community and I’d hate to see us lose it if we can’t keep bringing in the money,” said Georgina Smith, PBTC Concert on the Green committee chair.
A few hardships have made fund-raising slightly more difficult this time around, as the event relies almost solely on volunteers and donations. The Pacific Beach Community Foundation ” sponsor of the Pacific Beach Street Fair ” usually gifts $1,000 or more to the council. But according to Geoff Sykes, foundation president, there is only a “remote” chance that they will be able to donate this year since their major source of revenue, the street fair, formerly the PB Block Party, was cancelled.
The county is also unable to provide discretionary funds through the supervisor’s office as in years past, instead encouraging the PBTC to apply for a grant. While the city does not directly fund the event, it did provide a stage at no cost for the first two years. However, last year the city charged the PBTC $500 for the rental, and this year there is no stage to rent out, as it was sold. Another has been contracted for the same price from a local business, which agreed to a discount from its standard $750 fee.
Money woes aside, four local groups have already been booked for the concerts: The Screamin’ Primas on July 23, Sue Palmer and Her Motel Swing Orchestra on July 30, Piece by Piece on Aug. 6 and Rockola on Aug. 13. The bands range in style from boogie-woogie to big band to classic rock. All are newcomers except for Rockola, an annual favorite.
Smith said that Concerts on the Green grows in volume and popularity each year, and that Kate O. Sessions Memorial Park is always “absolutely full.”
“By the end of the first series it built up momentum, and each year it has [continued to do so],” Smith said. “Maybe next year, if we do well this year, we can add another band.”
Boxed lunches from Subway and Lotsa Pasta can be purchased ahead of time, as there will not be a snack bar in the park. Pacific Beach Brownie Troop 3411 will pitch in by selling pre-packaged snacks and beverages.
The PBTC is currently soliciting donations, sponsors and volunteers for the concert series. Downloadable donation forms are available online at www.pbconcerts.org. For more information, call (858) 483-6666.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The fourth annual Concerts on the Green series is still a few months away, but the pressing issue of funding has already reared its ugly head. To date, The Pacific Beach Town Council (PBTC) has raised only $4,000 of the $11,000 needed to host the family-friendly event.The series presents concerts on four Sunday afternoons between […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Concert series needs help raising some green","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}