Outdoor Concerts are Born at the Belknap Mill, Circa 1992

There’s something carefree and fun about an outdoor concert. If the weather is fine and there is a good spot to gather musicians and an audience, such as a park and maybe a food or ice cream vendor nearby, you have the making of a summer outdoor concert.

These are the elements of summer we have become used to with concerts all over the area each year. But for quite some time outdoor concerts were not plentiful in the Lakes Region. Luckily for Laconia, the executive director and the board of the Belknap Mill had a different idea in the 1990s. At the time, the Laconia Downtown summer outdoor concert series needed a new home and they moved from the downtown mall to the Belknap Mill. An outdoor site at the Mill seemed the answer, and soon the idea to expand and add a bandstand was floated.

Long before the parking lot was transformed into a green space with the gazebo, a flat cement space directly outside the Belknap Mill’s Wheel House was deemed useable as a place for the “stage.” It wasn’t a particularly big space, and there were shrubs that might have partially blocked the band from the audience. But it would do, and the parking lot could be transformed for audience seating.

There was no way to sell tickets for a public outdoor concert, but making money was never the goal. Rather, the goal was to simply offer music in a summer setting, continuing the Belknap Mill’s mission of being a cultural center for everyone.

For one of the first concerts, Belknap Mill executive director Mary Rose Boswell settled on Humano, an African-Caribbean band from the Boston area. She secured a National Foundation for the Arts grant, and also other business funding and the date for the concert was set for a day in July, 1992. Folding metal chairs were set up in the parking lot, and the flat cement “stage” area was cleaned and prepared for the band.

The music of Humano floated over the area by the river, drawing a good crowd to the free concert. There wasn’t really anything like it in the area at the time, and it helped create the practice of summer outdoor concerts that sprang up all over the Lakes Region.

African-Caribbean music band Humano performed in one of the Belknap Mill’s first free outdoor concerts. 

By the following summer of 1993, it was decided to continue the concerts and offer a series of performances throughout the summer. The series would be called the Riverside Concert Series, with Humano returning for a show on Saturday, July 17, 1993. The concert was followed by another featuring T.J. Wheeler and the Smokers on Saturday, August 21.

Humano concert sponsors for the 1993 show were First NH Bank, Nighswander, Martin and Mitchell, PA, with funds from New England Foundation for the Arts, and additional support from New England Telephone, NH State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. The concert was publicized and given added support from WEMJ, FM98 WFTN, Oldies 105, SUNNY 101.5 FM.

Knowing how very popular the outdoor concerts were becoming, Boswell and her staff and board of directors decided to hold more outdoor events. On August 3, 1993, the Atlantic Brass Band took to the stage area, presented by the Belknap Mill and the Lakes Region Association. The concert was funded by Meredith Village Savings Bank.

The future park was still a less-than-ideal place to hold a concert but that would soon change with plans for a park to replace the parking lot. In 1996, the city planning board got their first look at a plan to build an outdoor gazebo style bandstand and park next to the Belknap Mill.

Three community groups – the Belknap Mill Society, the Laconia Rotary Club and the Downtown Association, tasked local business owner Warren Clement with presenting the plan. Work was anticipated to begin in September of 1996 and would expect to take about a month to complete.

The Rotary Club had pledged $40,000 to the project. The Rotary Club members must have seen how beneficial such a park would be to the city. An article in the June 4, 1996 Citizen reported that. “For years, outdoor band concerts have been part of summer and have been held on the ‘lower parking lot’ on the Belknap Mill property, beside the Winnipesaukee River.”

The lot, which was about an acre in size, was where the new park was envisioned to be located. The planning board unanimously voted to support the concept of the bandstand/park.

The park was completed, with a beautiful bandstand offering a spot for bands to present their music to an audience that could gather in the lawn area where once a parking lot had been. The summer of 1996 saw a full roster of concerts, including July 11: Sweet, Hot & Sassy; July 18: Rusty Rock Star Road Show; July 25: Colada; August 1: Devonsquare; August 8: Frustration Hill Blues Band; August 15: Easy Bay Jazz Ensemble; August 22: Hot Damn; and ending the series for the season was The Amoskeag Strummers on August 29.

In 1997, summer rolled around and with it came the dedication of the new Rotary Park. The new park was the perfect place for the free outdoor concert series, which kicked off the summer of 1997 with 12 shows on the schedule. The concerts included Freese Brothers Band; Frustration Hill Blues Band; Quintessential Brass; Southern Rail; Easy Bay Jazz Company; Rusty Rockstar Road Show; Swell Party and Colada, among others.

In the years 2015-2017 the name was changed to Music on the River Concert Series and in 2016 the Laconia Putnam Fund began to sponsor the series.

In 2018, the concert series was renamed the Arts in the Park Concert Series and remains what we call it today. Over the ensuing years the park has continued use for concerts and eventually other events as well. During the summer, children’s programs are held in the park, and art demonstrations and other events enliven the space.

The concerts, started so long ago in the 1990s, are today a full-fledged and popular series.

This year’s lineup of free outdoor concerts (bring your own lawn chair for seating!) include Duncan Idaho Band, Boston Rovers, Audrey Drake, Dakota Smart, Hot Skillet Club, and a Sock Hop with Rockin’ Daddios.

TJ Wheeler and the Smokers were popular performers at the Belknap Mill’s outdoor concert series, which kicked off in the 1990s outside the mill building.

A Summer Night in Rotary Park in 2019.