Tt post may 3, 2016

"I see on the news Party in the Park is returning to Downtown ..."

• May 2, 2016 13abc story titled Party in the Park is back

No, it's not back. Let it go. Party in the Park or Rally by the River. What I saw in the early 1990s will never return. That's okay. We wore neckties because we went right from work. Neckties. We've evolved.

Start something new, give it a different name, make new history, and don't compare it to the events held along the riverbank 25 years ago for "free" with packed crowds and boaters stacked in the river.

From the 13abc story:

If you lived or worked in Toledo during the 80s and 90s, you probably remember Party in the Park at Promenade Park.

Bands would play on Friday nights in the summer, entertaining huge crowds of people.

Yep. And on holiday weekends, bands played Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

And now the story gets absurd:

Monday, the Toledo Mud Hens announced plans to bring back the much loved event to Hensville Park this summer.

Even Hensville calls it Party in the Park.

June 2010 comment by boxingfan:

... the branding of these shows as "rally by the river" [or party in the park] is just in hopes that people feel nostalgia about the old party's

It's a good chance that a decent percentage of the people attending this Friday's Concert Series at Hensville Park event were either not born 25 years ago or were too young to remember the events of the late 1980s into the 1990s.

Sometimes, it's best to let the old ideas exist only as memories. The Hensville people know that downtown Toledo in 2016 is slightly different than downtown Toledo in 1991. I would be offended if someone tried to compare "my" new concert series at Hensville park to something that occurred a generation ago.

(I'm glad Instagram didn't exist in the 1990s.)

The Promenade Park concerts were "free" 25 years ago because

... the old Rallies were taxpayer supported, run by the city funded group CitiFest.

Back in 2010, the Friday concerts at Promenade Park tried to be revived again, but each concert cost at least $20.

A few years ago, Friday evening concerts were held outside the Huntington Center. At least the founder changed the name to Party on the Block. But that didn't stop the comparison to the past.

Toledoans remember Party In The Park from the 1980s and 1990s with affection, Held in downtown Toledo’s Promenade Park, it was the place to see and be seen, all while enjoying music in a summertime setting.

Jim Lieber’s Sounds of Music brings back the spirit of Party In The Park with Party On The Block. Beginning June 5 through Labor Day weekend, Party On The Block will take place each Friday from 4 pm. to 8 p.m. outside the Huntington Center on Huron Street.

Really? The "spirit" of Party in the Park outside the Huntington Center?

The psychobabble explanation for this clinging to the past is Seneca County Courthouse Syndrome.

And honestly, some of that "spirit" from 25 years ago, you may not want brought back.

And not all Toledoans or area residents remember the late 1980s or early 1990s because A) they didn't live here or B) they were in pre-school.

Once in a while, let the past be the past.

#music #history #toledo