The Downtown Bryan Association’s Summer Sunset Series offered five weeks of free evening entertainment with a wide variety of music performances, drawing crowds of all ages to the Palace Theater.
The series took place every Thursday night of June at the Palace Theater. It was started to help promote Downtown Bryan and provide free public entertainment, according to marketing coordinator for the Downtown Bryan Association Abigail Noel. Noel also said the local music series continued to be a popular success throughout its run, featuring Chubby Knuckle Choir, Cilantro Boombox and Roxy Roca.
“It’s really aimed at anybody and everybody who lives in the Bryan-College Station area,” Noel said. “We just want people to have something fun to come do, enjoy Downtown Bryan, visit the Palace, come eat and shop down here. It’s just a fun atmosphere, very family friendly and it’s totally free.”
The Summer Sunset Music Series will have a brief encore on August 4, hosting band Steady Legend who did not get to perform. The performance will take place at the Palace Theater during Downtown Bryan’s First Friday.
“For Steady Legend we had to reschedule due to weather since the tropical storm was coming in and we weren’t quite sure what it was going to do,” Noel said. “So we rescheduled Steady Legend to come back and play for the August First Friday.”
Cilantro Boombox brought a fresh, independent take on latin-based music to downtown for the second concert of the series, imploring audience involvement through dance. Singer and guitarist Andres Villegas said that getting to meet new crowds is a worthwhile aspect of playing at events like these.
“It’s nice to be able to venture out of Austin,” Villegas said. “It’s really not about the size of the venue, but about venturing out and meeting people.”
History and political science junior Sarah Colley was in downtown Bryan with friends when they found out about the concert series by walking past the Palace Theater. Colley said that because of her positive experience, she may be coming out for the future concerts hosted by the Downtown Bryan Association.
“I kind of want to make it an every Thursday night thing, honestly,” Colley said. “It’s kind of expensive to pay for entertainment every week, and the fact that it’s free and that the temperature’s perfect, and it’s covered – I mean, it’s amazing.”
