TOLEDO, Ohio — This summer's highly anticipated concert series at Promenade Park is nearing.
The changes are already noticeable and Hunter Brucks, the person behind the concert series in downtown Toledo this year, says another big announcement is coming soon.
Crews of more than a dozen were working on getting the stage finished on Friday. At least 30 people will be working on prepping the stage area.
The initial build wrapped up Friday and Brucks, the CEO and president of HB Concerts, Inc., says everything is on track for the first show on July 13, featuring artist Flo Rida.
"We wish we would have started in June, but there's some oversaturation in the area with shows," Brucks said. "But we're in a good place."
A key factor behind having the concert series ready in time was hiring locally, he added.
"We've hired close to 65 people and they're on payroll, so, the city benefits from that," Brucks said. "We feel real good about the people. We kept everything completely local."
There are 10 concerts lined up for the Promenade Pavilion series.
"We're definitely on sale with seven shows and we've got three in the hopper right now. So we'll hit our 10-show quota," Brucks said.
Brucks was set to announce a band and its performing date earlier this week, but a conflict involving Netflix prevented it.
"We were set to roll it out Tuesday of this week and be on sale today, Friday," he said. "So that was disappointing, but it's contractual things. Sometimes we can't do anything about it. Thankfully, it wasn't a cancellation, right? We just had to wait to get it up and get it on sale."
Brucks says the park is for everybody and the concert lineup covers a variety of music genres.
"We felt there was too much — and I love country music — too much country in town," he said. "So, we focused on becoming more diverse, and our series is very diverse. Everyone from Flo Rida to TLC to Mark Farner to Yalit Crew, Here Come The Mummies. I mean, there's some pretty sizable shows coming."
Brucks says he is very optimistic about the series, overall.
"We're here. It's here. I got well over several million dollars into this thing," he said. "That alone, it's a monster, so we're excited. We're here. We're going to have a great, safe and fun season."
Ticket prices start at $25 and average between $50-75, he said.