Stamford”™s Alive@Five summer concert series is back at it again with a new lineup expected to appeal to all ages.
“It”™s a great, great series that really has captured the imagination of people in the entire region,” said Sandy Goldstein, president of the Stamford Downtown Special Services Division, which hosts the series. “There are a lot of summer concerts (in Connecticut), but Alive@Five is the gold standard.”
The Wallflowers kicked off Alive@Five June 20 and The Mavericks, Ryan Cabrera, Wynonna & the Big Noise, Bret Michaels, Matt Nathanson, Howie Day and Michael McDonald are expected to headline the rest of the eight-week summer concert series.
It”™s estimated that between 5,000 and 10,000 people attend the event each week, bringing a huge boost to downtown Stamford businesses, Goldstein said. For businesses in Columbus Park, where the stage is located, revenue increases five-fold compared with a regular Thursday night.
“They love it, this boosts them for the whole year,” Goldstein said. “And after the concert is over, (people) funnel out to all the restaurants in the city. It”™s an extraordinary economic boom to the downtown.”
But of course Stamford isn”™t the only city with its own summer concert series in Fairfield County. To name only a few, Rowayton, New Canaan, Greenwich and Westport all have their own lineups planned.
In Westport, The Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts is about to break ground on its new band shell. However, the construction certainly won”™t slow down its scheduling, said Carleigh Welsh, marketing and communications director for the pavilion. This year The Levitt Pavilion will host 50 free nights of music and entertainment downtown Westport on Jesup Green.
And while the Levitt series may be less well known than Alive@Five, it”™s still one of the largest and longest running in the state. During a course of the summer, more than 50,000 people will attend their events, Welsh said. This year, Foreigner was one the major acts scheduled to perform on the green.
“It”™s become a real community destination and tourist attraction,” Welsh said. “It”™s free access to world-class artists, outdoors under the stars.”
Using national data and spending averages by the Americans for the Arts 2012 economic report, Welsh estimated conservatively that the series generates an economic impact of nearly $1 million per summer in Westport.
According national averages from the report, the average person spends $24.60 when they attend an arts event, outside of the cost of admission. Taking into consideration that Connecticut is a wealthier state but that the events are free and often attended by a mix of incomes, Welsh said she felt the national number was likely reflective of how much is spent in Westport too.
Once the pavilion”™s new band shell is completed, the pavilion also hopes to break its $1 million threshold with larger audience sizes.
“I think that it”™s an incredibly successful model that is very impactful,” Welsh said of town concert series. “When we open the new pavilion, it will take a quantum leap too.”
