After an opening night this week featuring tenor Matteo Bocelli, the summer season at the Freeman Arts Pavilion in Selbyville is underway.
This year, calling it a summer season is actually something of a misnomer, because shows continue through September and into October as the venue highlights a brand new stage, seating, and backstage facilities.
Rounding out a big opening weekend at Freeman are country band Little Big Town on Thursday, funk legends K. C. and the Sunshine Band on Friday, and Beatles tribute act 1964: The Tribute on Saturday.
This year’s season continues a tradition of bringing nationally-famous rockers to the stage in Selbyville. Among the acts appearing this year are the Marshal Tucker Band, Govt. Mule, Blues Traveler, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Styx, and the Indigo Girls. Another staple of the pavilion’s summer season is tribute acts; this summer’s lineup includes tributes to Abba, Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Queen, and the Eagles.
The Freeman Arts Pavilion’s Alyson Cunningham says providing a wide-ranging lineup of performers is core to the group’s mission.
“We are a non-profit with a mission to provide arts access for all, and part of that for us means having a wide variety of programming available to people of the area and visitors,” she said.
Freeman also places a high value on featuring local arts organizations. Appearing on the stage this year are the First State Ballet Theatre and Clear Space Theatre Company.
Whether local or national, the acts visiting the pavilion this summer - as well as audiences coming for a performance - will have a new experience. This year, the Freeman Arts Foundation completed construction on a much larger permanent stage and backstage facilities.
“We've never had a permanent stage at Freeman Arts Pavilion, and so this is a really exciting year for us,” Cunningham said. “The plans for this venue have been in the works since 2016, and this new stage is about twice as big as the last one we had.”
To help pull off the dozens of concerts and entertain thousands of concertgoers takes a lot of work, and a lot of people behind the scenes.
“The people in the venue on any given night is about 500 people.=,” Cunningham said. “We have over 325 volunteers this year, we have a seasonal staff of about 100, and then we have about 20 full-time year-round staff.”
The season wraps up on October 3 with Roger Daltrey.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
