ASHEBORO NC – The Summer Concert Series will be returning in 2021 bring live music back to downtown Asheboro.
The free concerts that take place every summer at Bicentennial park were canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions and while they are scheduled to return in 2021, so far their off to a rocky start.
The first concert scheduled for May 16th, 2021 had to be postponed. Jonathan Sermon the Recreation Services Director for the City of Asheboro Cultural & Recreation Services Division explained that the Governor’s order made it too difficult to hold the first concert.
“The Governor’s current executive order only allows for 12 quests for every 1000 square feet for concerts held at outdoor venues. The lawn at Bicentennial Park is approximately 38,300 square feet which translates into an audience of only about 460 people. Historically a Summer Concert can average 700-900 people which is almost double what the current restrictions would allow.” said Sermon. “It was decided that it would be too difficult to try to enforce the capacity limit as well as quite unfair to possibly have to turn so many people away from a free concert that is designed for the entire community to attend.”
Despite initial setbacks plans are in place to move forward with the concerts scheduled for the rest of this summer. “The Governor’s next update should take place the week of May 24th where he will release his restrictions for June. We are keeping our fingers crossed that he will remove all outdoor gathering restrictions as he hinted at during his last update.” said Sermon. If that happens the next concert would be on June 6th would feature East Coast Rhythm & Blues. with a full line-up being announced at a later date.
As with all things returning post restriction, the concert series will be making some changes which include:
- Additional signage around the park reminding quests to social distance.
- Multiple hand sanitizing stations located around the park.
- Staff will continue to wear face coverings while interacting with the public.
- Restroom facilities will be wiped down regularly during the concert.
- Concessions will feature more prepackaged items. An example being bottled drinks instead of our past offerings of fountain drinks.
- Possibly limiting the number of people allowed on the dance floor at one time.
All concerts have been added to our event calendar linked in the main menu.