Thousands flock to Sutton Park concerts

CBSO entertain crowds over family weekend.

10,000 people attended Royal Sutton Coldfield’s Concerts in the Park over 1st and 2nd July in Sutton Park as the world-class City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) led a sell-out weekend of music and family fun.

On Saturday a crowd of 500 people gathered from 3pm to enjoy and afternoon and evening of outstanding music from Tony Skeggs to The WestEnders to the magnificent CBSO, who took audiences through popular scores from Harry Potter, Star Wars and the Nutcracker through to popular opera arias and a number of classical favourites. Their renditions of Pomp and Circumstance and Jerusalem had concert goers on their feet in Last Night of the Proms scenes whilst an impromptu Can Can saw much dancing in the crowd.

The evening was hosted by broadcaster, author and journalist John Suchet, the voice of Classic FM, who shared his passion for the music which was conducted by Birmingham’s own Michael Seal. Guest tenor Noah Stewart enchanted the audience with an outstanding series of arias.

Sunday saw 5,000 people get involved with and be entertained at the Concerts in the Park Beasts and Bugs family fun day. From Flying Bats to Praying Mantas through to donkeys and bees Sutton Park came alive for audiences young and old. The CBSO led the performances with their ten-piece mini-orchestra as well as local groups from three Sutton Coldfield Choirs along with a visiting Choir from San Francisco entertaining the crowd.

The weekend was also an opportunity for locally based organisations to showcase their world-class offerings from the award winning Baked in Brick to Sutton’s own fire engine bar, The Tipple Truck as well as gourmet hamper provider The Deli in Boldmere.

Councillor Simon Ward, Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council said: “What a weekend! What an amazing turn out and what an amazing series of performances. We’ve enjoyed world-class music, food and fun right here in our town, in the magnificent Sutton Park. Thank you to all the wonderful musicians and performers and of course to the 10,000 guests who joined us for what I am sure we can all agree was a most memorable weekend.

“This was the first time we have staged such an event and are hugely grateful to the people of our Royal Town for their support. We will of course be looking at the event in greater details as we plan for next year but at this stage I would just say how pleased we are with the level of local attendance (there was just 800 cars parked on Saturday) which shows how truly local the attendees were. I am also delighted that the event was without any incident – a testament to the crowd; the organization and the great community spirit.”

Concerts in the Park was organised by Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council. Information about the event can be found here

Pics; Aaron Scott Richards