click for concert calendar
It does not matter what type of music it might be, that’s a matter of taste, and throughout northern New Jersey there are flavors available to account for all those different preferences.
A lot of the concerts are free, like those held locally at Ramapo College, and a short drive can take you to many more in the area. It’s a summer experience well worth enjoying, for body and soul. Night concerts are the best, the sun dipping down and the moon rising slow, with the sacredness of night softly covering the crowd.
A free music concert outside evokes the simplest sense of freedom. You are not confined to a seat, you can walk, run around, dance, or even lie down and close your eyes. The sound is not bouncing off the walls, but filling the air around you, surrounding you, and simultaneously traveling off into the sky. You can easily adjust the music’s volume. Too loud, sit in the back; to low; move to the front.
It’s rare when major artists do a free concert. Famous concerts like Simon & Garfunkle in Central Park, or the iconic Woodstock Festival which ended up being free, don’t happen all the time. This doesn’t stop the magic from occuring, and perhaps it can even make it better. The sense of obligation to get close to the stage, to ‘see’ the performance, often gets in the way of enjoying the performance, to feel and hear the music.
And you can feel it. The pulsations of the music that could be overwhelming at an indoor venue take on almost a healthy element outside. The music reverberates through your body, but your ears don’t hurt. It penetrates your flesh, hits your bones, and does no harm. It just makes you feel alive.
The audience at an outdoor concert, chairs, coolers & blankets in hand, make the scene for the music. They set the stage for the musicians, some traveling light and others carrying tables, cheese platters, and the fixings for a fancy British picnic from days gone by.
It’s a mix, and it makes it all that much better. Different strokes for different folks, all under one sky, all listening to the same music, all doing different things together. That’s freedom, that’s music, that’s summer….
Follow this link to the Bergen County Parks Calendar for Arts, and find some music to feed your body & soul….and maybe bring along a snack for added flavor.
http://65.244.122.200/bcparks/ArtsCalandar.aspx
If you can’t get out to any concerts this season, you can follow this link to Billboards Top 30 Summer Songs with a video for each song:
http://www.billboard.com/features/top-30-summer-songs-1004101310.story#/features/top-30-summer-songs-1004101310.story