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Mike Van Rensselaer to play as ParkFest returns
After a week off for the Putnam County Fair, Greencastle Civic League’s Parkfest concert series resumes Tuesday evening with performances by Mike Van Rensselaer and Giuliana and The Gems.
Van Rensselaer will be making his 26th Parkfest appearance when he takes the stage at the Robe Ann Park bandshell in Greencastle at 6:30 p.m.
The retired Greencastle Middle School teacher will offer his familiar mix of storytelling and song, backed with banjo and guitar picking.
His performance will include a piece of local history with his ballad about an 1861 double murder that took place in the Putnam County town of Groveland.
“The murders of a young couple were just the beginning of the story,” explained the veteran local folksinger. “Things got even more worrisome for the townspeople in Groveland when the killer escaped from prison.”
Van Rensselaer will also pay tribute to Eva Kor, the Auschwitz concentration camp survivor and founder of the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute, who died earlier this month.
As has become his custom for Parkfest concerts, Van Rensselaer will invite children in the audience to come to the band shell and sing a song with him.
This year he will teach them two long lost verses to “Puff the Magic Dragon,” verses meant to dry the tears of children who really do pay attention to the story.
Giuliana and the Gems will follow, taking the stage at approximately 7:15 p.m.