OP_090116

opprairie.com Life & Arts
the orland park prairie | September 1, 2016 | 21
Crescent Park wraps up its 2016 concert series
Three more bands
to play Sept. 4 at
Orland’s Centennial
Park West
Jason Maholy
Freelance Reporter
Hundreds of people recently
took advantage of a
beautiful late summer evening
and attended the final
concert of the season held at
one of Orland Park’s newest
recreational venues.
Crescent Park — a fanshaped
1-acre swath of grass
nestled between the steel
and concrete of the 143rd
Street Metra station and the
Ninety7Fifty on the Park development
to the east, with
a bandstand at its northwest
end — is tailor-made to accommodate
concerts.
The park at the intersections
of 142nd Street and
Ravinia Avenue was populated
Aug. 21 with people of
all ages, who turned out to
see the band 1976.
Sitting in lawn chairs and
on blankets, concertgoers
dined on food and sipped
beverages they brought in
coolers, as they listened
to the cover band perform
popular 1970s-era hits by
Fleetwood Mac, Thin Lizzy,
Rod Stewart and Elton John,
among other artists.
Among those people who
were enjoying the show under
a sunny, blue evening sky
— with temperatures pleasant
but hinting of the coming
autumn — were three generations
of the Dabrowski
family. All Orland Park residents,
the group consisted of
Mark and Jean, their daughter-in-law
Julie, and Julie’s
children Claire, 2 years old,
and Paul, 8 months.
“Well, ’70s Music is always
good,” Jean laughed
when asked about what
Marlene Humphry (left) and Al Schumacher, both of Orland Park, share a picnic from
Mariano’s at the show.
brought the family out to the
show. “We’re trying to take
advantage of the town we
live in. We missed a couple
of the other [concerts]; then
I wrote this one down on
the calendar and was like,
‘We’ve got to get one in this
summer.’”
“We were in college during
this era,” Mark added,
referring to the ’70s rock
emanating from the stage
roughly 100 yards away. For
the record, the Dabrowski
couple met while attending
Northern Illinois University
during the 1970s.
While little Paul slept
comfortably in a stroller, his
big sister happily consumed
rainbow sherbet, provided
free to concertgoers by Hudsonville
Ice Cream.
“It’s nice to get out and
have free baby-sitting,” Julie
Dabrowski said. “And it’s
good to have some different,
free activities.”
A short walk away, along
the perimeter of the park,
Orland Park Mayor Dan
Michael Whitten (back), of Orland Park, plays catch with his
sister Megan.
McLaughlin, his wife and
several other family members
chatted as they dined
on sandwiches, salads,
and chips and guacamole,
with brownies for dessert.
Like many people who attended
the show, they had
a cooler packed with food
and drinks.
“We’re trying to create
events where people don’t
have to leave Orland,”
McLaughlin said about Orland’s
concert series. “They
don’t always have to go to
Ravinia or Downtown Chicago
or Oak Brook or wherever.
So the last 10 years or
so, we’ve been adding more
and more events every year.
“I was just sitting here,
thinking how neat it is. I just
saw a couple riding their
bikes this way, a family riding
their bikes that way, and
all these people sitting here,
walking around, listening to
music. That’s what we wanted
to create here.”
Guitarist Ray Sapko performs with 1976 Aug. 21 at
Crescent Park as part of the Village of Orland Park’s
summer concerts series.
Photos by Laurie Fanelli/22nd Century Media
The concert was the fourth
and final one to be held at
Crescent this summer. Orland
Park is to present one
more show to close out the
summer on Sunday, Sept.
4, when three bands will
perform during a five-hour
mini-fest at Centennial Park
West, 156th Street and 108th
Avenue. Classical Blast is
slated to kick off the show at
2 p.m., and Fletcher Rockwell
is scheduled to perform
covers of heartland rock
classics beginning at 3:30
p.m. Chicago-based 1980s
cover band Sixteen Candles
is to close the show with a
two-hour set scheduled to
begin at 5 p.m.
“We’re trying to replicate
Ravinia a little bit,”
McLaughlin said of the upcoming
Labor Day weekend
music fest.