Concerts In The Park Grows In Popularity

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Sacramento's Concerts in the Park series has grown bigger and bigger each week. Attendance at Caesar Chavez Park has averaged just under 5,000 each week and locals keep coming back for more.

"Completion for the week!" said Khimberly Marshall. "The week's done!"

"There's people and excitement and I want people to laugh and have fun," said Kenny Buchanan, who attends the concerts in the park nearly every week.

Thousands in the city make the park their Friday night destination and not even the heat can keep them away.

"In a way it surprises me and in a way it doesn't cause it's so much fun," said Katie Almazan. "It's just you know, you'll do whatever it takes."

This summer's concerts have seen record numbers; some nights reached nearly 7,000 attendees.

 "The fact that it's free is going to lure a lot of people that don't usually do this stuff and it's just a good night out," said Brandon DeWitt.

"We've really been focusing on local talents that the residents and everyone in Sacramento knows and loves," said Jordyn Anderson with the Downtown Sacramento Partnership. "A lot of them have been nationally recognized."

She told CBS 13 the key to keeping the crowds coming back is to keep it local.  Marshall said the high attendance tells her a little something more about her neighbors.

"They want to be engaged in art, in the environment, in the community, they want that," she said. "They are really addressing that by having events like this and people are saying yes thank you and coming out being a part of it."

 For people like Katie Almazan, going to these concerts has always been tradition.

 "I've been coming here since I was 5 years old, it was kind of always something special that my dad and I always did in the summers," she said.

Now she is a vendor and sells engraved stamps during the event.

"To have it go full circle and now I'm actually a part of it. So it's really great."

 The last concert of the summer is set for August 5.