ACTION closes festival with concert, ice cream
Published 10:33 am Thursday, July 16, 2015
This weekend’s Summer in the City festival will close similarly to how it opened — giving visitors with a chance to enjoy live music, food and the companionship of fellow festivalgoers.
Members with ACTION ministries will again present the final event of the four-day summer gala with a concert and ice cream social. The event begins at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Beckwith Park gazebo.
Singers and musicians with several Dowagiac area churches will come together that afternoon, performing a set of Christian-themed music that will include hymns, gospel, and contemporary pieces.
The audience will be invited to sing along with many of the numbers, with lyric sheets handed out to visitors during the concert.
“Everybody will know some of the songs, and few will know all of them,” said Jeff Neumann, ACTION board chairman and one of the performers on Sunday.
In addition to the music, organizers will be serving free ice cream cones to visitors, provided by downtown’s Caruso’s Candy & Soda Shop, Neumann said.
ACTION closed out last year’s Summer in the City festival as well, hosting a community worship service and picnic on the final morning of the event. The nondenominational service was a huge success, with more than 200 people coming out to pray and to enjoy the cookout, Neumann said.
The local ministry network was invited to participate in the festival last year by organizers with the Greater Dowagiac Chamber of Commerce, an invitation that was extended to them this year as well.
“ACTION ministries still wants to remain visible in the community, and that’s one of the main reasons for this event,” Neumann said. “We want to bring people together, and share with them what we’re all about.”