It's the Wednesday night phenomenon that’s brought thousands of Central Minnesotans together every week...and it’s back!
Since its inception in 2011, Summertime by George (SBG) has continued to pull thousands of people into Downtown St. Cloud on Wednesday evenings for music, food, art and more.
Now, while the idea for the free community event seems foolproof in hindsight, the fact is, no one really expected SBG to become as popular as it has. Let’s back up a little and review how all this even came to be…
The groundwork for SBG was laid in 2007. At that time, the St. Cloud Rotary Club, in tandem with the City of St. Cloud, started kicking around the idea of gathering the funds to fix up one of St. Cloud’s most central and historic parks.
Over the years, Eastman Park / Lake George, while ideal for all types of things, had developed a reputation for being underutilized and conditions began deteriorating.
This inspired the Rotary Club of St. Cloud to take action.
Four years and $7 million in restorations later, the park was ready for a celebration. The park was transformed with granite water fountain, fishing piers, restored walking and bike paths winding around the lake, a splash pad and, most recently, a permanent performance stage, completed earlier this year.
The question was - exactly what kind of celebration would suit this new community gathering place? After much discussion and whittling away at the list of options, Rotary members expressed overwhelming support for the creation of a weekly outdoor festival, complete with live music, food vendors, artisan retailers, a beer garden, activities for children and families...and more.
That plan was ideal. Last year’s final festival shattered records, drawing in an estimate 13,000 attendees. That brought total SBG 2013 attendance to over 86,000 people.
So, if you haven’t yet been bitten by the Summertime by George bug, you can on June 11! We hope to see you there.
