Simsbury Meadows

We spoke with Board Chair Jeff Dornenburg about Simsbury Performing Arts Center, Inc., through the Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center, will enrich community spirit, quality of life and economic development in Simsbury and the surrounding region.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. My
guest today is board chair Jeff Dornenberg from the Simsbury
Meadows Performing Arts Center.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good morning, Hi, good morning, Happy to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
I love the Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center. I bring
my candelabra, I sit on the lawn with my blanket
and we listen to whoever's performing, and it could be romantic,
it could be family oriented. It's just so nice.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
It is just so much pleasure. There's always so much
work to keeping the place open and healthy and fresh.
But boy, when I go to the concerts and just
see everybody enjoying themselves, and we always talk about we
need to put acts on the stage, but really we're
always building community. It's all about It's all about people
getting together and enjoying themselves.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
So for people who don't know about this performing arts center,
where is it located, what happens? How many years have
you met? An existence? So many questions.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, for those who haven't heard about it, Simsree Meadows
Performing Arts Center has been open for twenty years now
that we are celebrating our twentieth year this year and
in fact have a twentieth anniversary concert in August on
August ninth, and it's an outdoor venue, so sometimes the
weather is too hot, too cold, to rainy, but you

(01:21):
know what, most of the time in the summer, it's
beautiful night We have areas for picnics and we have
tables up front. Tucket Mountain Music Festival has been coming
for all twenty years that we've been open. That's with
the Hartford Symphony and they have five shows that start
late in June and head through to the end of July.

(01:41):
They have a particularly good lineup this year. Every year,
our facility can hold capacity of up to ten thousand,
although we're happier at anywhere from two thousand to six thousand,
and their Fourth of July concert is one of the
most attended events that we have, and this year Livingston's
Tailor is going to join them, and there's always fireworks

(02:02):
at the end and a good time will be had
by all the facilities owned by the Town of Simsbury.
But we're a nonprofit that runs it, and so we
have a seven hundred thousand dollars a year budget that
we recover from sponsors, from ticket sales and fundraising. So
we are happy to be part of Bertie's for charity.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
That's wonderful. That's what I was going to say. Hence
why you're involved with that. And if you go to
your website Simsbury Meadows dot org, it's that easy. If
you donate there, for every dollar, Webster Bank will give
fifteen cents, so they're making a dollar fifteen instead of
just a dollar and it goes to an amazing cause.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yes it does, and we're really happy and thankful for
Webster Bank for doing this yet again this year. It's
been a nice source of revenue for us. It's a
nice bonus to get that fifteen percent on top of
someone else's contribution. It's a great program.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Talk some more about the acts that will be there.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yes, actually we're going to have a lot of fun
this year, as we do every year, and again that
The Talking About Music Festival has five different concerts. They
start with Livingston Taylor coming in for the fourth of
July concert and then they end up with Ben Foltz
coming in at the end of July and as their
special guest. It's going to be fabulous. On July thirteenth,

(03:26):
we have an afternoon free jazz concert and it's going
to be Afro Caribbean rhythms and we expect it to
be fabulous. August ninth, Max Creek and Muyah will come
for a our twentieth anniversary celebration celebration. Look for more
details on that, or simply go to Simsury Meadows dot

(03:48):
org to find out more. Mike del Judas is coming
back in September for some music under the Stars and
it's a fabulous event. Lots of people dancing, lots of
happy people leaving that concert. And then later on in
September there's Simsary Arts and Crafts Festival. Now we've got

(04:11):
proof veest. Later in October, We've got lots of things
going on on site. So we hope that people will
regularly check their calendars and see check us out on
Simsury Meadows dot org, see what's going on, and keep
coming back because we have the freedom with this facility
to schedule things later in the summer that are not

(04:33):
in the schedule now. So it's a good idea to
check in.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, there's something for everyone, something for all ages. So
my daughter Alexa loves the Grateful Dead. She's going to
see Max Creek there. I am crazy about Mike del Judae.
If people don't know, he looks sounds. If you close
your eyes you think it's Billy Joel. He actually toured
with Billy Joel. And like you said, everybody will be
dancing and singing. So there's something for everyone at the

(04:58):
Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center, and like you said, even
the arts and crafts that are coming up. So please
make your donation right now, go to Simsbury Meadows dot org.
So it was on your website and I was looking
at everything and I noticed, let's sing. Tell everybody about that.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
This is so exciting. This is an unofficial live tribute
band to Taylor Swift and they came last year and
just blew the place out, and they're coming back this year.
We had so many people asking for them to please
come back again. It is just a scream and all

(05:35):
these three thousand to four thousand mothers and daughters out
there just dancing and singing, and it's a great time.
It's a fabulous concert.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
It's absolutely beautiful. It's the Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center.
I'm speaking with board chair Jeff Dornenberg. Thank you so
much for being here today and for serving the community
the way that you do.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Oh, thank you so much for your support and for
airing this. We just we're always trying to get the
word out and happy to have as many people as
possible show up and enjoy our concerts.