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Date: 7/19/2022
AMHERST – Summer Music on the Amherst Common, presented by the Amherst Business Improvement District (BID) returns for the second year to bring a diverse collection of free performances to the South Common every Friday night at 6 p.m. from July 22 through August 12.
The lineup opens with a performance from Jazz in July, a University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) two-week summer program where students and faculty learn from jazz educators and artists. On July 29, local artists Dawn Lepere and Jeff Starns open for blues singer-songwriter Arden Lee. The theme of the Aug. 5 show is “family dance party,” featuring Latin Grammy Award-winning children’s music artist Mister G and the horn-heavy 9-piece Western Massachusetts ensemble, Soul Magnets. The final show mixes country and pop rock with the Rosie Porter Trio and Maxxtone. The event is sponsored by Encharter Insurance.
Amherst BID Executive Director Gabrielle Gould said it was important to the BID and the community to have the events free for all ages. She said that brings diversity and equity to the audience that you typically would not see at ticketed shows.
“One of the ways that that really helps grow arts and culture is that even if you can afford to bring your 6-year-old to a show, if they have a meltdown halfway through then you feel like you’ve imposed on somebody else, but also you feel like you’ve hurt yourself and your financial well-being,” Gould said. “What’s great about free shows is that it’s a great time to experiment bringing art into yourself and to the people around you because you’re not losing anything, and you know you’re not offending anybody if you get up and need to run around or walk away or do your own thing.”
Gould said part of the mission of the event is related to that of The Drake, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit live performance and music venue that opened in downtown Amherst on April 28 as a space to center arts and culture, and attract people to eat, shop and mingle in Amherst. She said The Drake has been able to bring in various genres and cultures in its first three months and has helped challenge the public to bridge cultural gaps and preconceived notions or biases on race and religion.
“We feel like The Drake has this incredible opportunity to bring to the stage an incredible array of everything from Morocco pop stars to American hip hop to jazz standards, classical musicians, chamber players and present them in a space that lends itself so nicely because we built something that was sort of ambiguous,” Gould said. “That was part of our mission, was to make sure we were bringing a global perspective to the town of Amherst and the community and visiting community.”
The Summer Music Series encourages people to eat at one of the various cuisines in downtown Amherst while serving from local businesses including White Lion Brewing, Artifact Cider Project, Black Birch Vineyards and Crème Bru.LA.
“The sole purpose of putting on this four-part series which cost the BID many zeroes on the end of that first dollar sign is economic empowerment for our community,” Gould said. “How can I bring 1,000 people downtown on a Friday night in July which would normally be pretty empty here because all the students are gone, the faculty are gone, everybody’s on vacation? How do you encourage people just to leave their very comfortable, air-conditioned homes and say, ‘You know what? Tonight, we’re going to walk into downtown and we’re going to support a local business and we’re going to go and hear some incredible art.’ Economic driving is the key behind all of this.”
Gould said that in her opinion, economic vitality for a town like Amherst is driven by experience and nostalgia. She said the goal is to spread wealth by bringing people back to experiencing downtown and remembering what pre-pandemic life was like by enjoying food, drinks, music and the company of loved ones.
“It is a city when you look at all of the cultural offerings that we have here and we forget that because we’re a college town,” Gould said. “I really think if we can start to re-position Amherst rightfully in a cultural mecca and a cultural destination where we have so much converging at the center of downtown, it’s a great way to look at it.”