{"id":17138,"date":"2024-06-07T13:25:11","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T17:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=17138"},"modified":"2024-06-07T13:25:12","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T17:25:12","slug":"4-years-later-no-parking-lot-for-tumatoe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/07\/4-years-later-no-parking-lot-for-tumatoe\/","title":{"rendered":"4 years later, no parking lot for Tumatoe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Duke Tumatoe kicked off Decatur’s 2024 concert series Thursday night before a nice-sized crowd amid ideal weather on the Madison St. Plaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was quite a contrast to the last time the native Chicagoan opened a concert series here, in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The now-abandoned water treatment plant near Riverside Center provided the backdrop as Tumatoe and his band got the summer series going that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adhering to state guidelines during the Covid-19 pandemic, Chamber of Commerce officials held the concert in the Riverside Center parking lot, with people asked to stay in and\/or near their vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rain the previous night had scrapped the original plans to hold the concert in the grassy area north of the Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approximately 40-50 vehicles (including golf carts) showed up, scattered around the large parking lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four years later, Tumato and a full horn section brought a blend of blues, rock, and R&B to the plaza to begin this year’s series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The self-taught guitarist, age 77 this month, performed for three hours, with only one break, kicking off the 13-week series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ALSO:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* The Chamber of Commerce, which handles all aspects of the series \u2013 including fundraising, scheduling, etc. \u2013 is still in need of sponsors for this year’s series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Thursday’s opener marked the start of the seventh season of concerts on the plaza. (In 2020, after some concerts on the parking lot, the scene shifted back to the plaza.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Hubie Ashcraft will be here next Thursday, with another 6 p.m. start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Duke Tumatoe kicked off Decatur’s 2024 concert series Thursday night before a nice-sized crowd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[17,14,15],"class_list":["post-17138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-entertainment","tag-community","tag-decatur","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}