Thursday, August 23, 2007
If you recently accepted a flyer from a seven-foot tall silver robot on Wescoe Beach, you might have touched the hand of Chris Armstrong. Armstrong, Lawrence sophomore, created and is promoting the third annual Burcham Park: Music For The Masses concert in Lawrence.
Armstrong got the idea for the concert about three years ago after taking a walk in the north Lawrence park and thinking it would be a sweet place to host a concert, he says. Armstrong mostly books local talent and says the park is far enough away from homes that he receives few noise complaints from city residents.
The savory sounds of this year’s event will include a quirky mix of underground hip hop, funk and super-complex “math rock.” Past attendance has been smaller, but Armstrong hopes to see around 500 people this weekend.
“I’m trying to get some exponential growth goin’,” he says.
Though Armstrong organizes the bands, reserves the park and finances the event by himself, he has a group of volunteers that help him complete tasks like running sound equipment and selling tickets.
He says the most unpleasant part of staging a concert is promoting it, a task that this year includes being baked alive inside cardboard boxes wrapped in aluminum foil.
“I think a lot of freshmen don’t really know what’s going on in town,” he says. “It’s a pretty big opportunity to let them discover the music scene.”
The festival starts this Saturday at 12 p.m. Ticket information, band links and directions to Burcham Park are available at the concert’s Web site, www.burchamparkfestival.com. One third of the concert revenue will go to Project Scio, a Lawrence-based charity organization.
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