Great Park Floats Up Menu of Music
Orange County’s Great Park is offering Flights & Sounds again this year from August 6 – September 25 with eight dance parties and eight concerts you won’t want to miss that cover musical dance tastes from swing to tango to waltz and mambo and musical listening tastes from mariachi to Maori to blues and Cajun.
This past weekend kicked off the Irvine Barclay Theatre sponsored Summer Festival with a wonderful swing dance party to Swingtown Friday, August 6th and an equally rousing mariachi concert to Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles Saturday, August 7th.
I must admit I raced out the door to swing it with Swingtown not wanting to be late for their 8pm start, remembering the long snake-like lines of cars from last year that kept me tapping my toes in the car and not on the dance floor.
Much to my happy surprise the Park had rethought their entrance procedures bringing in people from the other side and having four ticket lanes prepared to take your $10 parking fee (up from the $8 of last year) parking cars in a closer parking lot with other attendants guiding you into the spaces a la Disneyland.
Golf carts were again available to ferry you and your friends on up to the front gate leaving me thinking all this needed was a nice glass of chardonnay to complete the pampered arrival experience. 
The band was placed on the short side of the dance floor this year giving a delightful view behind them of the Great Park’s vibrantly lit orange balloon going up and down all night in the cool summer sky.
We were greeted by an absolutely packed and well-lit floor with people of all ages swinging up a storm. I spotted toddlers boinging like miniature Tiggers all the way to senior citizens lindy hopping with enthusiasm.
Saturday’s fabulous all woman professional mariachi ensemble of ten ladies in very impressive giant sombreros was equally enjoyable and well attended.
Together for more than 16 years, this group of talented musicians and singers kept the audience singing along to familiar tunes, clapping their hands and swaying back and forth in their seats.
Of course, I had to drift to the back of the seated group and enjoy a couple of rumbas and polkas with my honey to the irresistible beats. Who says you can’t dance just about anywhere??
So if you’re asking yourself where you can go this Summer to dance or just plain be entertained where it doesn’t cost an arm and leg for admission, you don’t have to drive in wall to wall traffic to get to and it isn’t too hot and claustrophobic once you finally get in… give the Great Park Friday Night Dance Parties and Great Park Saturday Night Concerts a try.
I’ve written out their schedules with links below and if you want to ask me in advance for a couple of steps to have fun out of the dance floor, well I wouldn’t mind one bit throwing them in with our work on your wonderful wedding dance.
Happy Summertime,
949.400.7347
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Friday Night Dance Parties*
August 6: Swingtown (Swing)
August 13: Lucky 7 Mambo (Afro-Cuban)
August 20th: DJ Hapa & DJ Casey Connor (NY/LA DJs spin the spectrum dance music)
August 27th: Hector del Curto’s Eternal Tango Quintet (Argentine Tango)
September 3rd: Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums with Miss Carmen Getit (Swing, West Coast Jump Blues and R&B)
September 10th: Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys (R&B and Rockabily)
September 17th: The Jerry Mandel Swinging the Standards Jazz Band (Gershwin, Porter, Sinatra, Bennett & more)
September 24th: Waltz Me (Strauss and Ballroom)
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Saturday Night Concerts*
August 7th: Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles (First all-woman pro mariachi ensemble in the US)
August 14th: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (A favorite from last summer – swing it!)
August 21st: Last For One (World champion b-boy dance crew from Korea)
August 28th: Te Vaka (Music from the Polynesian Triangle, New Zealand to Tahiti)
September 4th: ScrapArtsMusic (World-famous group will play instruments made from recycled industrial scraps!)
September 11th: Blind Boys of Alabama (Gospel, Soul, Blues & Funk)
September 18th: Donavon Frankenreiter (OC native musician and pro surfer, hang ten!)
September 25th: BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet with Big Chief Monk Boudreaus and the Mardi Gras Indians (Cajun band, Mardi Gras to the OC)
*Admission is free, Parking $10/car, 8pm.
Jillian at the Great Park!
