AcoustiHoo rocks ParkBeats’ season fi nale

Submitted

Osseo’s Central Park was filled into Monday evening’s September darkness as The Heartbeat Center for Writing, Literacy and the Arts wrapped up its ParkBeats summer music series.

Area residents tapped toes and danced to the rhythms echoing through the park from the Eau Claire band, Acousti- Hoo.

“We’d run the Monday night summer concerts longer into August than we ever had during the four summers we’ve done ParkBeats,” said Scott Schultz of The Heartbeat Center. “AcoustiHoo was rained out earlier during the summer. We really wanted the area’s people to hear their music, though, so we extended the season into Monday night’s special encore performance with them.”

AcoustiHoo is led by renowned saxophonist Sue Orfield, who is joined by bassist and vocalist Randy Sinz, Lucas Fischer on guitar and vocals, and Olaf Lind playing mandolin and violin.

People attending the concert stayed well past sunset. Schultz said the weather conditions for the concert were the finest the ParkBeats crew had seen throughout the series, with the mosquitoes even staying at bay. “It turned out to be one of the greatest nights we’ve ever had, weather-wise and – most importantly – musically,” Schultz said.

ParkBeats has been presented by The Heartbeat Center on summer Monday nights at Central Park for four years, with organizational help from Osseo musician Brian Bethke and sound services by Audio Adrenalin Dee-Jayz of Osseo.

Sponsors for the event included Global Finishing Solutions, Osseo Community Foundation, Osseo Commercial Club, Osseo Chiropractic and Health Services, United Bank, Tri-County Communications Cooperative, Mayo Clinic Health Systems- Oakridge, Burly n Buck’s, Friends of the Hauge Memorial Library, Fire Truck Pizza, and Sweet Summer Smiles. Osseo Automotive provided a trailer throughout the summer, which served as the ParkBeats stage.

Plans are to return with another ParkBeats in 2016, with some additional twists being planned.

"As long as our sponsors and so many great individuals keep stepping forward to help pay the musicians for their work, we plan to keep going with another season,” Schultz said. “We have some surprise twists for next year that the community might enjoy, though.”