Arts & Entertainment
Life in the Parks: Bluegrass Brings People Out in the Yard
The annual bluegrass event at Suson Park brought nearly 300 people outside Saturday evening. The night was full of country music and plenty of jokes.
Saturday evening turned out to be one of those perfect summer evenings. The sun hung low in the sky. The humidity had finally died down, and everyone was itching to get outside. Some 300 of those people were gathered on the grassy hill at the Suson Park farm. It was bluegrass time.
The annual bluegrass evening at Suson Park is going on 10 years now. And each year, the parks department looks forward to the several hundred people who come out for a night of bluegrass.
A sea of blankets and lawn chairs sprawled across the small hill near the farm. Horses ambled slowly behind George Portz and his band. And across from the barn, fishing poles bobbed above the water as folks enjoy some late night fishing.
Find out what's happening in Mehlville-Oakvillefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Portz, who fired an endless slew of corny jokes at the crowd, has been bringing his band out to Suson Park for the event for years. He knows about every bluegrass song in the book, and keeps the music and jokes flowing for the two-hour show.
As the night went on, it seemed everyone was enjoying themselves, even the youngsters who sipped on juice boxes seemed engrossed in the twangy sounds of bluegrass. Patch stopped to talk with some of the concert-goers and found that Portz, from Illinois, wasn’t the only one who had driven in for the event.