Civic League celebrates 30 years at ParkFest

In honor of the 30th year of the Greencastle Civic League, the organization will kick off its annual ParkFest summer concert series with an anniversary celebration at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 3.

The celebration will include performances by the Fret Set and Bridge 19, bounce houses and other games for the kids, snow cones, popcorn, cotton candy, and other vendors.

In 1984, the Greencastle Civic League Inc., a nonprofit organization, was founded with a mission to promote beautification, clean-up, cultural development, and general improvement of life in Greencastle.

Greencastle Mayor Sue Murray also proclaimed the week of June 1-7 as Greencastle Civic League Week in celebration of its 30 years of making Greencastle a beautiful, clean and comfortable place to live, work and play.

For the past 20 years, the Civic League has sponsored the ParkFest summer music series in order to promote the arts, support local musicians and give back to the community in the form of free, high-quality, family-friendly entertainment.

The Civic League not only sponsors local talent during ParkFest, but also sponsors Lights of Love during the holidays along with Clean City Month along with several fundraisers including the soon-to-open Splash Park.

The entertainment will kick off with the Fret Set Band, a group of friends who enjoy making old-time music and sharing it with others. The band is celebrating its 20th year together.

The band's songs are traditional and contemporary folk music with all band members playing multiple instruments.

Lenora Bowlby's first instrument was the harmonica, given to her on her sixth Christmas. She made her first dulcimer in 1980. Don Bowlby plays the mandolin. Rick Smock is lead guitarist and singer.

Larry "Rooster" Kersey has been playing instruments of kind or another all his life. He is on stand-up bass. Bill Lorton played rock 'n' roll guitar in school. He plays several instruments and is on fiddle.

Jill Dombrowski, a music teacher, plays hammered dulcimer as well as other instruments. Mike Van Rensselaer has played guitar and banjo for more than 40 years. He got his start with the ukulele in high school, in a glee club that did roaring '20s tunes.

Cliff Gammon has been playing music since he got his first electric guitar in sixth grade. he played trumpet in junior high and high school. He has been playing in various bands since 1978. He plays guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, flute, harmonica, dobro, Hawaiian steel guitar and ukulele. Cliff plays blues, rock, country, swing and rockabilly.

John Kellum was in the DePauw University a cappella choir and was a member of the Collegians for four years, from 1968 through 1972. He has played with a variety of bands in a number of states, including the Doc South String Band in Fairbanks, Alaska, where he learned to play fiddle tunes, and a country rock band in the Los Angeles area called Stumbleweed in the mid-1970s. He is originally from a small town in central Kentucky, where he grew up listening to Motown and soul music. He later learned to love bluegrass and rockabilly music when he was a member of The Blue Skies Band in Bloomington in the early 1982.

Following the Fret Set will be Bridge 19, the project of Amanda Lucas and Audrey Cecil. The ladies mix pop, folk and Americana in their sound.

Having shared the stage with a number of nationally and internationally known acts, Bridge 19 released its debut album "The Fall Back" in May 2012.

With "The Fall Back" comes all the familiar qualities we are used to hearing from Bridge 19; the harmonies of course, spirited melodies paired with intense lyrics, agile guitar and layers of instrumentation.