A CAPACITY OF 500 PEOPLE ENJOYED THE 2022 PARTY IN THE PARK

Written by Stewart Green

After a break due to the Covid shutdowns the Sandbach ‘Party in the Park’ returned to a capacity crowd of 500 people who enjoyed a wonderful concert by the Sandbach School Big Band opening with the Robbie Williams song “Let me entertain you” followed by a trip through the 1960’s and 70’s catalogue via Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City”, Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”, The Beatles “Day Tripper” and “Mr Blue Sky” from the Electric Light Orchestra among the classic songs being performed.

The first part of the concert ended with the classic Neil Diamond song “Sweet Caroline” which has now become a special audience participation song after it was voted the official Queen’s Platinum Jubilee song by BBC Radio 2 listeners and was sung by Rod Stewart at a special concert outside Buckingham Palace as well as being sung by the England Football squad after qualifying for the Euro 2020 finals having beaten Denmark 2-1 in the Semi-final on the 7 July 2021.

After the break to change from the Sandbach School Big Band to Foden’s Band with their red tunics appearing on stage to continue where Sandbach School had ended the first part of the concert with a Neil Diamond hit, this time from the movie “The Jazz Singer” and the song “America”. Foden’s Band’s trip was entitled “Musical Theatre Classics” and moved through the obvious with a selection from “Mack and Mabel” and a lovely solo by Melanie Wyle on Flugel Horn from Jesus Christ Superstar, “I don’t know how to love him”, to the not so obvious version of California Dreaming in a beautiful arrangement from the film San Andreas adapted for the singer Sia and arranged for brass band by Taylor.

The evening ended as usual with the “Last Night of the Proms” selection with firework accompaniment as the sun set slowly on this summer evening.

Commenting on the event the Mayor of Sandbach Town Council, Kathryn Flavell said “It was delighted to provide its ‘Party in the Park’ event in this its tenth year and after a two year absence due to COVID. Clearly the event has been missed by the community who turned up in their hundreds to enjoy the good weather and fabulous entertainment.

We were inundated with party goers from the gates opening at 5pm and sold out tickets quickly after the start of the event, so we were saddened to have to turn away a few disappointed customers, at this point to adhere to capacity guidelines. We would like to say a huge thank you to all those who contributed and played their part in making this brilliant event so enjoyable and successful – a great example of what we can achieve when the community comes together”.

The first ‘Party in the Park’ was on the 5 June 2012 to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, in this her Platinum Jubilee year it is nice to know this has become a traditional part of Sandbach life and like the Queen long may the concerts continue.