SEQUIM — A cliche but true: The best things in life are free. Take live music and fresh air, together and free in the summertime at various spots on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Then again, the Music & Movies in the Park series in Sequim isn’t really free.
It’s been funded by sponsors since it was born in 2006.
And this year, “it seems the economy is affecting this popular community event,” said Karen Kuznek-Reese, the Sequim City Clerk who orchestrates the season of music and outdoor cinema.
The 12-week series, which has included a sprinkling of family feature films on a giant portable screen at the James Center band shell next to Carrie Blake Park, is likely to be cut back this summer, Kuznek-Reese said last week.
“Last year, the series cost $13,400, and we’ve only taken in $7,000 so far this year,” she added. Kuznek-Reese, along with Deputy City Clerk and co-orchestrator Bobbie Usselman, had to trim the slate to one movie instead of three and plan eight weeks of concerts instead of 12.
The economy has not, however, cut into enthusiasm among local musicians. “We had 34 bands apply,” Kuznek-Reese said. “It was amazing.”
Concert schedule
She and Usselman will select this summer’s bands this week and hope to announce the concert schedule by Friday.
In past years, Sequim’s Tuesday evening series has started in mid-June and run through early September and attracted hundreds to the grassy swath before the band shell. Seniors, teens, toddlers and scores in between come out to soak up the sunset soundtrack in lawn chairs, spread out picnic blankets — and hop up to dance beside the stage.
In recent weeks, Kuznek-Reese has wrestled with the dilemma of cutting out movies or music or both. The solution is simple, though she understands the economic conditions local companies labor under.
“If we get more money, we’ll add more bands” and perhaps another flick or two, she said.
Past seasons have taken listeners all over the musical map, from bluegrass with Deadwood Revival to big-band swing with Stardust.
The films are always comedies, such as last year’s “Daddy Day Camp” and “Surf’s Up,” about a surfing penguin.
Among the sponsors who’ve helped furnish the $7,000 for this summer’s events is Sherry Schubert of A Catered Affair in Sequim.
She’s worked with teens from the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula to provide a snack bar on movie nights and said the experience is a valuable one for them all.
“They get to practice their cooking and retail sales abilities . . . though they eat a lot of their profits themselves,” she said.
Schubert, whose husband, Walt, is also a series sponsor through his Action Property Management firm, said they both will support the events even if the movies are cut back.
And despite the deepening recession, her catering company is busy.
“It’s a good busy. Not an extravagant busy,” Schubert added. “We have a good loyal base.”
Other Music & Movies sponsors this year are developer and Olympic Ambulance owner Bill Littlejohn, Jarmuth Electric, Sequim Realty-Team McAleer, Bekkevar Logging, First Federal, the engineering firm Gray & Osborne and the Clark Land Office, a Sequim land-use planning consultancy.
“The concerts bring families together, and it’s a place for kids to go,” said Sharon Stevens, Clark’s accounting manager. The slowdown in construction has the company pulling in its purse strings, so owners Ken Clark and his son, Scott, have had to reconsider their community donations. “Ken and Scott pick and choose what they think is most important to the community,” she said.
Colleen McAleer of Sequim Realty, another office hit hard by the downturn, added: “We’ve had to cut back on our sponsorships. But there are certain things we think are really important, and this is one.”
For information about sponsoring Music & Movies in the Park, phone Kuznek-Reese at Sequim City Hall at 360-683-4139.
Sequim is the smallest of the three North Olympic Peninsula cities presenting a free summer music series, and so far it’s the only one to rein it in.
Port Townsend’s Thursday night concerts will get under way July 2 and run through Sept. 3, according to the Chamber of Commerce.
Port Angeles’ free Wednesday concerts on City Pier are likewise unchanged and will run from June 24 through Sept. 2.
KeyBank and the Peninsula Daily News are title sponsors, said Russ Veenema, executive director of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce.
A new sponsorship program, “Concert on the Pier partners,” has brought in Sunset Do-It Best Hardware of Port Angeles and Rayonier Corp., he added.
Peninsula Daily News and its free weekly newspaper in Sequim, Sequim This Week, helped start the performances in Sequim.
The PDN was also a founder of Port Townsend’s Concert on the Dock series, and the newspaper provides free advertising for it and the Sequim and Port Angeles concert programs throughout the summer.
Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
