Video: First of six Summer Concerts at Hiawatha

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An unofficial (but reliable) tally of the crowd when tonight’s concert kicked off at the east lawn of Hiawatha Community Center put the count at more than 300. This is the first of six Summer Concerts at Hiawatha, second year the series has been presented by the Admiral Neighborhood Association (with sponsors including WSB – see the full list here). On stage, The Starlings, perfect for a cloudless summer night, with a crowd full of families – lots of little kids bouncing and dancing in front of the stage.

See the full season slate here. ADDED 9:13 PM: A couple more pix. First, PCC Natural Markets (WSB sponsor and major concert-series sponsor along with The Johnson Team from Prudential NW Realty) brought the Kid Picks van – you’ll see it the next 5 weeks too:

And it’s always a great event for people-watching. Not just the little ones dancing like mad in front of the stage, but the ones who are fascinated even by the sound equipment:

Next week, Back Burner, 6:30 pm Thursday, bring donations for the West Seattle Food Bank.

Diane July 29, 2010 (9:23 pm)

so there must have been about 200 kidlets?
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fantastic!!! loved seeing all the children in a beautiful swirl of activity enjoying the music; yay community!!!

Tom July 29, 2010 (11:39 pm)

That was a completely insane number of little children! If they had all decided to stage a rebellion we would have been overrun!

(The Starlings were great. As always.)

Here’s a question – why don’t they angle the stage about 45 degrees to the south so it points towards all the people?

WSB July 30, 2010 (12:06 am)

Katy explained it to me in an exchange as I was gathering information about anything new this year: “We’re going to orient the stage a bit toward the southeast to avoid the big shotput/gravel section that’s now in the field – to give people more grassy area to sit in and enjoy the music.”
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(I don’t know how the eventual result compared to what was envisioned. The aforementioned gravel thing is part of the Hiawatha renovations, I believe.)

Katy Walum July 30, 2010 (6:27 am)

Hi Tracy and Tom,

Yes, the vision is to orient the stage a bit south. This did not happen this week because the Parks stage techs somehow did not get the message in time from the ANA/Hiawatha, and once the stage is set up, there’s no moving it with amateur hands. We did try to orient the band toward the south, which helped a little bit, but adjusting the angle of the stage itself IS in the works for next week and for the remainder of the concerts.

Thank you for your comments, and thanks to all our concert series sponsors and attendees – we couldn’t do this without you! What a great neighborhood we have!

Carson July 30, 2010 (7:07 am)

The only problem with pointing it south is for the first 30-60 minutes you will really catch the sun in your face. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have it over by the softball infield and point north? More of the audience would have the sun at their back, but no so nice for the musicians.