Live drums, horns and singing could be heard blocks away as the Trabuco Salsa Band kicked off the first concert of Downtown Evanston’s Downtown Summer Sounds series Thursday evening.
A crowd flocked to the stage at Evanston’s Fountain Square for a free salsa lesson 30 minutes before the concert, shimmying their shoulders and stepping in unison to a repeated, “one, two, three and five, six, seven.” Once the band began performing at 6 p.m., community members showed off their moves, swaying and spinning in front of the stage and along the street.
Rising second-year biomedical engineering graduate student Dara Detwongya said she came for the salsa — both the dance and the music.
“When I saw that the downtown is organizing the event, I just had to check it out because I love live music so much,” she said.
Other attendees arrived with friends and family, setting up lawn chairs and blankets in front of the stage and milling between vendors’ booths. Thursday’s event was the first of nine concerts and was hosted in conjunction with the Thursday Night Market, another Downtown Evanston event.
This year marks the third annual concert series. Downtown Evanston Executive Director Andy Vick said the purpose of the event is to create a fun experience that will invite people downtown and expose them to local vendors.
Vick said there used to be more music in the city’s downtown before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“One of the things I heard regularly was, ‘We want music again,’ and so we built a new program from scratch,” Vick said.
For many attendees, Thursday evening’s music did not disappoint.
Attendee Stefan Pressling arrived at Fountain Square with a group of friends, looking forward to music and dancing, which he said they enjoy often.
“The band is fantastic, and that makes everything good,” Pressling said. “If the band is lousy, we go home.”
Instead, he and his group spent the evening dancing everything from salsa to bachata and the cha-cha.
Detwongya said she also enjoyed the live music, adding that it was a nice way to spend the evening as someone who dances recreationally.
Vick said the organization aims to include a combination of different music groups in the series, including local Evanston- and Chicago-based bands as well as various genres of music to appeal to broad crowds.
As attendees enjoyed the Trabuco Salsa Band’s music and the warm summer evening weather, local vendors also had the opportunity to make the most out of their Thursday night. The Thursday Night Market, now in its seventh year, featured around 30 vendors selling handmade goods, foods and services.
After spending the afternoon collecting stones on the beach, Evanston resident Eileen Cipriano said she came straight to the market to sell her jewelry and art.
She had been on standby as a vendor for the event, so she was excited to get the call to set up her table at the market. Cipriano’s handmade jewelry uses mainly local materials, often including items she finds at the lakefront. A single piece can take anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours to create, she said. The jewelry at her table was displayed on playing cards from Dave’s Rock Shop.
Cipriano said she’s been selling her pieces locally for about three years and also has a table at the Evanston Farmers’ Market on Saturdays.
She appreciated being able to share her work at Thursday night’s event and saw it as an opportunity to “promote our local lakefront” through her chosen materials.
“That’s my love of Evanston combined: It’s a great place to live and promote the arts,” she said.
Email: [email protected]
Related Stories:
— Main Street Fair highlights local businesses, performers despite funding hurdles
— Food Truck Fest draws community to Ingraham Park
— Evanston residents explore downtown businesses in ‘Sip + Stroll’ event
