By Holly Nadler
Martha's Vineyard Gazette
It was raining yesterday morning — and thankfully the weather gods switched the downpour with Sunday’s splendor and the Martha’s Vineyard Festival which saw music jamming in Ocean Park from three in the afternoon until just past 11 p.m.
“It doesn’t rain on my shows,” declared Festival Network vice president Rick White just before the event.
NASA might want to get in touch with him.
Mr. White, who spent childhood summers in Oak Bluffs between 1956 and 1963, was thrilled to combine the heavy hitting machinery of his company’s concert promotion with the panoramic beauty of Martha’s Vineyard. “Look at this!” he exulted as he wheeled an electric cart around the nine acres of Ocean Park, taking in the indigo blue water of the Sound, the scrim of bulbous white clouds on the northwestern horizon and the arc of Victorian manor houses. “You could not find a more spectacular venue for a concert anywhere in the world!”
The construction of the concert site began at the end of last week. The giant stage went up along the Beach Road perimeter (with a screening of the documentary Zeb on Saturday night). On the west flank, a line of white tents reared up, the roof lines of isosceles triangles topped with American flags. By Sunday morning a low fence surrounded the entire park to make matters official: Only ticket holders were admitted inside the concert grounds, although folks were free to camp on surrounding lawns and to listen from porches. And they did.
Although the Boston Pops played in Ocean Park last summer, this year marked the birth of a bigger, more ambitious, seven-plus hour event. Oak Bluffs selectman Ron DiOrio said: “It’s such a huge undertaking that we need to give ourselves this time around to work out the glitches.”
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