Editorial: Pops at Promenade?

Blade music columnist Heather Denniss details the downtown Columbus summer draw called Picnic with the Pops and asks; “wouldn’t the strings of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra or the voices of the Toledo Opera along the Maumee River on a sultry night sound and look just as pretty, if not prettier? (“Outdoor concerts make the summer Pops,” Thursday)

Columbus Commons, just south of the Ohio Statehouse, is certainly a beautiful location, but it does not match Promenade Park in downtown Toledo along the banks of the river.

Ms. Denniss concludes “we can only dream.” But Toledo’s government and business leaders would be wise to make that dream a reality.

Nationwide Insurance provides sponsorship dollars for Columbus’ Picnic with the Pops. The investment brings much goodwill and greatly enhances the quality of life in their headquarters city.

Ms. Denniss details the experience of concert-goers in Columbus who come from near and far for what has become a summertime tradition in the capital city.

Toledo actually has a better location for a summertime symphony series than Columbus. The critically needed ingredient is civic will.

The Toledo Concert Band featuring members of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra draws huge crowds to the Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont for a July 4 concert every year.

Lawn chairs or a blanket on the grass is all you need to experience the excellence of the musicians and composers in celebration of American independence.

There is no doubt, popular music played by the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and/​or sung by the Toledo Opera would become a classic summertime experience and a defining aspect of life in Lucas County.

When the city and county combined to pay for a feasibility study on the possibility of an amphitheater in Promenade Park, The Blade Editorial Board scolded the planners for the failure to imagine a summer symphony series there.

The temporary band stand is now in place and the will to make it happen is all that is needed to more than match the outstanding Picnic with the Pops in downtown Columbus.

Columbus sells tables with catered meals with pricing driven by proximity to the stage and access to the lawn behind the tables. It happens in a space similar to Promenade Park and provides confidence Toledo could replicate the business model.

The Forward Toledo masterplan observes: “our water access is almost criminally under-utilized as a city.” The $250 million Glass City Riverwalk is intended to change that by making the Maumee River integral to Toledo’s quality of life and identity.

Adding the performing arts to the mission of making water synonymous with Toledo by creating a summer symphony series in Promenade Park should be more than an impossible dream.