Summer Showcase offers free concerts all summer
The members of the Schoenbrunn Valley Barbershop Chorus recently performed at Tuscora Park as part of the Summer Showcase concert series. Also performing were the Buckeye Blend Quartet.
RTY Summer Showcase producers Joe and Mindy Croft and Travis Green have a concert on the schedule with national Christian artist Jason Roy with Building 429. They are best known for the songs, “Glory Defined,” “Listen to the Sound,” “Where I Belong” and “We Won’t Be Shaken.”
The show is part of The You Hold It All Tour, produced by Broadhead Music Group and Compassion International. Local sponsors are Pipes Insurance Services, MaPP Investment Service, ProVia and the First Federal Community Bank.
The concert is scheduled for Friday, July 8 at 6 p.m. with two other contemporary Christian groups performing: We are Vessel and Boiling Point.
Jason Roy has traveled the world leading worship and writing songs about his life and the way God has intersected it.
“I will tell you that it’s the big, probably the biggest thing, that we’ve ever done as a group too, as far as the production. It’s a full-blown concert production,” Joe Croft said. “It’s going to be a big show. It’s going to be a well-done show.”
Croft hopes to see about 2,000 people on the hillside at Tuscora Park. He encourages area churches to help spread the word about the concert to their congregations.
“This is, again, not our normal concert. And it’s costing us quite a bit more to bring them in than most of our shows, but we’re hoping for a big turnout because it’s absolutely free,” Croft said, noting he recently saw tickets to other well-known Christian artists selling for between $45-$120. “It’s going to be a great night of worship.”
Although the show is free, freewill donations will be accepted to help defray the cost of the band and also the expenses for Summer Showcase, which is in its 24th year. Mindy Croft has been involved in the show for 19 years, and Joe Croft has been with Summer Showcase for 17 years.
Croft thanked the sponsors who have been with Summer Showcase for a number of years.
“They’re very faithful. But from time to time, we need some new sponsors and businesses to step up and help sponsor the shows. That is a little more difficult,” Croft said.
Also, sometimes it’s a challenge trying to match the sponsors with the shows or artists they want to sponsor.
“There’s a lot of great acts out there, a lot of great shows,” Croft said. “One thing that’s getting more difficult is a lot of our bands are becoming more expensive. When you think about it, there are bands that do this part time and also bands that pretty much make their living out of playing concerts, playing these venues. And they have expenses. Most people wouldn’t play for what they play for, so they have to love what they’re doing.”
With gas costs going up, it even costs bands more to drive to shows.
“They deserve what they get for sure and should be getting more. We hope to give them more, but we’re just limited,” Croft said.
One way the Summer Showcase raises funds is through the distribution of their program books for a $2 donation. Using the numbers printed on the programs, they give away door prizes at the intermission of each show. They also sell 50/50 tickets.
“Typically, we’ll draw eight or 10 numbers and give away some small prizes. And then as we get further into the year, we’ve got some pretty good prizes that we put out,” Croft said, noting the Performing Arts Center at Kent State University at Tuscarawas is going to sponsor a giveaway of tickets to the PAC.
Sponsors also have ads in the program and a list of businesses and individuals who support the show.
Summer Showcase is an RTY production. The goal is not to make a lot of money off the concerts but to give people a place to listen to a free concert each week during the summer.
The producers keep families in mind when scheduling the shows, and they take requests for those attending the concerts.
Besides the upcoming show with Jason Roy with Building 429, Croft said there are a lot of good shows scheduled for the rest of the season.
“Michelle Robinson out of the Cincinnati area, she’s top notch. Another group coming back is Fleetwood Gold. We probably had a couple thousand people here for them last year. They are a really great Fleetwood Mac cover group,” Croft said.
Another group scheduled to appear is Vinyl Sunshine. They are new to the Summer Showcase schedule and play music by The Turtles, The Monkees, The Buckinghams, The Archies, The Partridge Family, Shocking Blue, Tommy Roe, Jefferson Airplane and more.
The local favorites that will appear at Tuscora Park this summer are The Moonlyterz, The Dominic Greco Band, Tequila Mary, The Jericho Big Band, The Tuscarawas Philharmonic, Carl Dreher and LaFlavour.
LaFlavour typically draws a big crowd of about 1,200-1,500 fans.
“They’re always going to be one of our biggest crowds. That’s why we’ve continued to bring them back year after year because they just have such a following,” Croft said.
The three Summer Showcase producers give up their summers to keep the shows going.
“It gets more difficult every year, especially with less help, but we really believe it’s important to have the shows for the community,” Croft said. “We really found that out, especially last year coming out of COVID, how difficult it was for so many of the people that typically come to our shows for them not to have something to do to be able to socialize, that they could afford.”
Summer Showcase makes a great date night with the reasonably priced concessions at the park, seeing a nice show and getting out of the house.
“I guess that would be the biggest reason we continue to do it — because we know there are people out there that really appreciate having this,” Croft said.
For a complete Summer Showcase schedule, visit www.rtysummershowcase.com or the Facebook page at RTY Summer Showcase.