Ahoy, Mateys! “Shiver Me Timbers II – Music and Mayhem” will open the 2019 Merrill City Band concert season this evening at Normal Park!
Narrator Dastardly Bootz, The Thirsty Night Pirates, and Director Cap’n Darby Deadbones will take the crowd through an evening of pirate fun.
Free activities, games, prizes, and more will be available for kids. Giant inflatables “Mutiny on the Bouncer” and the “Kraken Slide,” will open as of 4 p.m. this afternoon. Concessions will be available beginning at 4:30 and Winchester will provide pre-concert entertainment. The band concert gets underway at 7 p.m. this evening and will feature vocal soloist Rusty Pipes Buchegerrrr, alto saxophonist Sea Monkey Xena, and a children’s choir singing “Talk Like A Pirate.” The band’s selections will relate to the theme throughout the night.
The Lions Club is offering up burgers, fries, hot dogs, chips, soda, and water. Pie and Pirate’s Booty ice cream and other flavors will be available from the Band Boosters. And, as always at MCB concerts, popcorn and lemonade will be available from HAVEN. Along with the giant inflatables, there is digging for buried treasure, face-painting, and a coloring contest with prizes in various age categories. Eye patches and pirate name tags will be available, along with other fun pirate items. A Little Pirate Parade will make its way through the audience during the first portion of the concert, after which each little marching pirate will receive a bag of bounty.
Local businesses have donated a little bounty to be given out as part of the ever-popular 50/50 raffle. A separate raffle will be held to shoot the cannon at the end of the concert.
Though pirates be a nasty lot in real life, this is all in good fun. Band members will be donning their best pirate attire and encourage audience members to do the same, whether you’re a little pirate or just a pirate at heart. In addition to prizes for the best-dressed little pirates, there will also be a prize for the best-dressed adult.
Concert sponsors include Dave’s County Market, Merrill Courier, Merrill Foto News, Murray and Associates, Inc., Reindl Printing Inc., River Valley Bank, The Living Room (Gleason), Thirsty Night Pirates, Wisconsin Building Supply, and WJMT.
A rain date has been set for the following Wednesday, June 26th, in the event weather forces a cancellation.
Residents in and near the park be forewarned! The pirate cannon will be fired regularly throughout the evening. Bring a buck and you can be one of the lucky ones to help shake up the neighborhood. One lucky raffle winner will get to fire the cannon during the band’s last piece, “The Starrrrs and Stripes Forever.”