It took only three months to throw together — and still has eight more bands to host — but Loudoun County's only charity concert series is already a success after just two weeks of music at the Belmont Country Club in Ashburn. On July 18, the first night of the series, however, concertgoers got the right weather with a little bit of luck.
"At one point, I looked up and there were clouds all over the sky, except us," said Tracey Parent, president of the Loudoun Foundation, which is putting on the event. "I think everybody who was there was just thrilled."
Approximately 1,200 people showed up on the first Sunday of the 10-week series to enjoy Starship, a pop band best known for the mid-'80s single "We Built This City." It was a bit shy of the venue's 4,000 capacity, but allowed the organizers to test our their plan.
"[Ticket sales] were exactly where they needed to be to break us in," Parent said.
THE CONCERT SERIES benefits three charities: Good Shepherd Alliance, Loudoun Community Free Clinic and Special Love For Children, a Winchester camp for children with cancer. Although 80 percent of the ticket sales go directly to the charities (the remainder covers expenses and the Loudoun Foundation's after-school music program), the charities themselves have to work hard to make the concerts a success. Each charity is deeply involved behind the scenes, planning the events and rounding up volunteers.
"We're much more than a beneficiary of the concert," said Lyle Werner, executive director of the Loudoun Community Free Clinic. "We all have official responsibilities."
Good Shepherd Alliance executive director John Brothers was present at the first concert to inform people about Loudoun's homeless population. With the funds from the concert series, he hopes to expand the organization's scope to include not just homelessness, but rural poverty in the county as well.
Concertgoers can find him working upcoming shows. "If anyone wants to come out and learn about poverty, I'm the big guy with the glasses," Brothers said.
The Loudoun Community Free Clinic, a volunteer-run clinic for Loudouners without health insurance, saw 1,800 patient visits in 2003. Currently, the two-year-old clinic is open from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays. A large donation from the Loudoun Foundation could drastically change the clinic's operating schedule.
"If this is six figures for us, this will allow us to move to a new level, maybe full time," said Werner.
AFTER SOME organizational tweaking — such as adding a root beer float maker to take some pressure off the shaved ice guy, and moving the refreshment booths closer to the stage (people were walking "a country mile" to get a drink, Parent said) — the Loudoun Summer Music Fest '04 headed into the second week with the Fixx, another new wave band with its greatest radio success in the mid-'80s.
The weather wasn't as favorable heading into week two - a misty evening kept ticket sales for adults to a little under 600. Parent is encouraged about next Sunday, however, which features a more recently successful band, the Gin Blossoms.
"I think this is going to be the big week," she said.
This summer's lineup favors nostalgia acts such as the Wailers and Eddie Money — acts hand-picked by Parent. At $10 a ticket and children under 12 free, it's a family-friendly event with rock & roll for parents and a moonbounce for children, and Parent has high hopes for next year.
"I think it's going to get a lot bigger," she said. "Who wouldn't want to come? You can bring your kids and they actually have something to do."