Culture
Improvements Made to Lancaster Festival Concert Site
By: Cheri Russo
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The start of the annual Lancaster Festival is only a week and a half away. That means the Wendel Concert Stage is being constructed on the Lancaster Campus back lawn.
This year’s performers include Amy Grant and Christopher Cross. But the real star of the festival shows at OUL may be something concert-goers don’t notice — a new drainage system.
“Last year was an extreme year for rainfall, and we saw some weaknesses in the drainage system,” said Lancaster Festival Volunteer Max McGee. “The ground got saturated and the water had nowhere to go. So we did quite a bit of drainage work this year.”
Ohio University Lancaster and the Lancaster Festival have been working together on the summer musical event for more than 25 years. Groundskeepers from Ohio University Lancaster are out mowing, mulching and trimming to spruce up the primary festival concert site that forms a natural amphitheater on OUL’s back lawn.
Other improvements to the concert site at OUL this year include improvements to the back corners of the stage and changes to the spotlight towers.
“We are changing the front of the house spotlight towers,” said Lancaster Festival Director Lou Ross. “We are eliminating the scaffolding towers and using a power lift to station the spotlights.”
“The scissor lifts for the follow spots will come in really handy,” said McGee. “We will be able to take down the lights quickly in the event of a storm.”
Four shows during the 11-day festival will be held on the Wendel Concert Stage at OUL. More than 600 volunteers donate their time each year for preparation at more than 20 venues around Lancaster.
The festival runs July 16-26. For more information on the festival, visit www.lancasterfestival.org.