The Lancaster Festival is fully lit up once again as it prepares to host Lady A and Rick Springfield at it's 2022 event.
Following two years impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival returns in full July 21-30. This year also celebrates the 35th anniversary of the Lancaster Festival Orchestra.
The headliners will each give Saturday performances accompanied by the Festival Orchestra on the Wendel Stage at the Ohio University-Lancaster campus. Springfield will perform at 8 p.m. on July 23, and Lady A will close out the festival with a grand finale concert at 8 p.m. on July 30.
“Rick Springfield has a great orchestra show that he has done many times before,” says Deb Connell, executive director of the Lancaster Festival. “He does all of his hits, but with our orchestra that just adds an extra element to it that I think the audience will love.”
It will be Lady A’s first performance with an orchestra, so Lancaster Festival Artistic Director Gary Sheldon wrote orchestral arrangements for the band's music to be used for the Lancaster concert and any future performances.
The two headliners mark a change in scale for the festival as it works to broaden its appeal throughout the region.
“We hope to continue at this level of artist going forward so that we draw more people from other communities to come to Lancaster and experience the Lancaster Festival,” Connell says.
More than just headliners, the 10-day festival has a program packed with 70 events, including Monday Night Jazz with Bryon Stripling, Elton Rohn: The Premier Elton John Tribute Show, children’s programming and free art classes.
“There truly is something for everybody,” Connell says.
Cuban pianist Aldo López-Gavilán, an internationally acclaimed jazz musician, will give three different performances, including the opening night concert, Bravo Beethoven, at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church and one of his own original music, Café Concert: Sizzling Sounds of Cuba, on Friday, July 22, at the Cheers Chalet.
Gavilán will also return to the stage for a performance of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” during the opening of the Rick Springfield concert.
“That’s a crowd favorite piece, everybody knows that piece and (Gavilán) just does it masterfully,” Connell says.
Lancaster Perks
The Lancaster Festival offers attractions and accomodations to give a full – and welcoming –festival experience.
Both Saturdays, the festival puts on the second largest fireworks display in Ohio, second only to Red, White and Boom.
Food and beverages are available for purchase at prices that haven't been marked up, as is common at festivals, Connell says. Concert-goers can also bring in outside food and beverages.
Most of the concerts and events are free. Parking is also free and attendees are invited to bring chairs, blankets and even coolers into the lawn section.
Community Effort
Connell is just one of three permanent staff employed by the festival organization throughout the year. The festival relies on seasonal staff, a volunteer board of directors and 400 volunteers from the community to make the festival happen.
Local uniformed officers volunteer as security, while emergency and fire personnel from Lancaster provide emergency services during the event.
Some volunteers, Connell says, have worked with the festival for 30 years.
“Every single person in this community … owns a little piece of pride because of the festival, and they all work together to make things happen that don’t happen at other times of the year,” she says. “The restarting was hard, but the joy that it’s bringing back is worth all the hard work.”
More information and the full festival schedule can be found at www.lancasterfestival.org. General admission tickets are available for purchase online; by calling 740-687-4808 or at the box office at 117 W. Wheeling St., Lancaster.
Claire Miller is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at cmiller@cityscenemediagroup.com.
