September marks the end of summer and the 2008 Juniper Park Summer Concert Series. The concerts were very popular and attendance was at an all time high with hundreds of neighborhood residents arriving with their lawn chairs eager to enjoy a night of great music.

Every week throughout July there was a concert starting with the R&B Shadetree Mechanics Band, which plays in such venues as B.B. King’s Blues Club and the South Street Seaport. These guys enjoyed every moment of their performance and the whole park rocked while they were performing.

Then there was Lou Picardi and his Big Band Night. For those who still miss and long for the good old days of the Big Bands, Lou Picardi filled that bill on their concert night.

Italian Night featured Angelo Venuto and his Band, Voices. The night was unique because interspersed with their Italian music they rocked Juniper Park with their modern tunes that everyone loved. In fact many people still tell us how great Italian Night was and everyone wants a repeat in 2009.

German Night featuring die Schlauberger (dSb) was another popular event with people dancing and singing along to the German songs that we don’t hear enough of anymore.

The Summer Concert Series ended in August with Irish Night starring Tommy Flynn and the New York Show Band. The Special Guest for the night was Mattie Connolly who sang Irish tunes along with some of Johnny Cash’s songs. Everyone got into it and sang along with Mattie. Irish Night, like all the concerts of summer 2008, was a huge success and the feeling in the community is that it’s just too bad the summer is over!

Sponsors for all the concerts included the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation and the Juniper Park Civic Association. The July concerts were also sponsored by TD Commerce Bank.

Irish Night sponsors included the Cross County Savings & Loan Association, Curves of Middle Village, Connolly’s Corner in Maspeth, Rossi & Crowley, LLP and StoneKraftz Construction Company of Glendale. We thank Elizabeth Crowley for her help in getting the sponsors and channeling everything efficiently to the JPCA for implementation. She did a great job.

Italian Night sponsors were the Federazione Italo-American of Brooklyn and Queens, Queensboro Unico, Montalbano Realty, Tony Nunziato’s Enchanted Florist, Tower Plumbing, Magna Travel and State Senator Serphin Maltese.

All good things come to an end and at this point everyone puts away their lawn chairs and buckles up for another cold winter with the very warm memories of a great and successful 2008 Summer Concert Series in Juniper Valley Park.

We’ll do it again in 2009!