Saturday night was the sixteenth annual Pops in the Park – the Florida Orchestra made beautiful music in Vinoy Park,  for free,  on a crisp, dry, cool evening for a park filled with appreciative listeners.  Average attendance at the outdoor concert has been about 12,000 people, so this event clearly strikes a chord with St. Petersburg’s residents and visitors.

And what a perfect night to have an outdoor concert!  The sky was largely blue, but there were just enough clouds to make things interesting as the sun moved lower in the sky.  Temperatures were in the 60′s, people wore sweaters and jackets, and it just felt good!  The music began around 7:00 PM and ended around 9:00, with fireworks over the Vinoy Basin as the 1812 Overture was played by the Orchestra.  One encore, Three Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue, brought everyone to their feet, and as people began their mass exodus from the park, you could see that many of them were still marching to the silent drumbeats in their heads…

If you missed the concert, I’m sorry.  But it’ll be back again next year, thanks, in large part to local Realtor Helen Torres who sixteen years ago pledged $20,000 per year to the Florida Orchestra for the next twenty years in exchange for this annual outdoor concert/gift to St. Petersburg.  Four more years in her pledge – I hope that, at the end of the twenty years, someone else steps up and takes over for Helen.  In the meanwhile, I’ll continue to attend each year and to enjoy the music.  In the words of Joni Mitchell, they were “playin’ real good, for free”.  Just another one of the many reasons that it’s great to live in St. Petersburg…

Pops In The Park (click on photo for larger image)