By Spencer W. Belnap | [email protected]

Sugar House’s Wilmington Avenue that runs between Highland Drive (1100 East) and 1300 East is a freshly redone street with the road construction completed in mid-June. The businesses and companies along there are excited to see vehicle traffic flow again, and for the summer months to bring even more people into the neighborhood. While the Sugar House Park Fourth of July fireworks show isn’t happening this year, there will be a local concert series in Wilmington Plaza happening each Wednesday night in July, including on Independence Day.  

Music Garage and Colmena Group are two businesses in the area that have partnered together to create something similar to prior years’ Hidden Hollow Concert Series. They named their event the Wilmington Plaza Concert Series and gathered a dozen or so sponsors in May and June.

On Wednesday evenings in July, the plaza in between Wilmington Avenue and Hidden Hollow will be featuring live local music yet again. The two main organizers are excited to offer some more outdoor music to Sugar House residents and visitors.

“We started talking about it last year to make happen this year,” Music Garage Director Steve Auerbach said. “Last year, we did a trial. I had a couple speakers on sticks and rented a subwoofer, and just wired it up out there with a mixer and just went for it.”

One of the main reasons behind doing it was to bring more business to the shops and restaurants in and around the plaza.

“It went pretty well, and some companies said they got a few customers from the concert,” Auerbach said.

Colmena Group Property Manager Chris Toronto is glad to see the concert series come to fruition, and he’s eager to see how it does this summer.

“If we’re getting a lot of excitement around it this year and a good turnout, we will consider expanding the series next year,” he said. “We don’t want to do too much, and still keep it fun and exclusive. But we’ll see how successful it is this year and see how the sponsors react to it.”

“Neither of us are in the concert promotion business,” Auerbach said. “But we created a partnership. Now we have at least 10 companies partnering with us, and it’s a thing, and the first one is July 4,” Auerbach said. “It’s off the street, so getting people to it is the biggest thing. I’d like to create a cycling event around the concert series eventually, so people can just cycle right into the plaza and cycle right out.”

Kicking off the four weeks of music will be Blues On First, a Salt Lake City act that has been playing live blues all over town for many years. They will play from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, July 4, with some of Music Garage’s youth blues students opening for them at 6 p.m. The rest of the lineup includes Terence Hansen Trio on July 11, John Flanders Jazz Trio on July 18, and Music Garage.Org Youth bands to close out the season on July 25.

The concert stage will face Wilmington Avenue. So, as people walk up the plaza they’ll see the stage and hear the music echoing around the heart of Sugar House. There will be tables and chairs, but concertgoers are encouraged to bring small lawn chairs. Picnic baskets are welcome, and there are plenty of restaurants surrounding the plaza and in the nearby Sugar House Shopping Center. There is also some grass space in Hidden Hollow behind the stage where folks can throw down a blanket on and listen to the melodies from there.