Urban Discoveries Baltimore

Picnic blankets aren’t just for picnics, outdoor film festivals, and tying to the end of your hobo stick anymore. This summer, Baltimore enjoys a wealth of gratis outdoor concerts, where you can wallow and groove to your stingy heart’s content. Here are a few:

1. Sundays and Tuesdays all summer long by the Patterson Park Pagoda at 6:30 pm, you’ll find a variety of musical acts ranging from Mama Tried, a bluegrass group playing tonight, June 23, to Chopteeth, the afro-funk big band closing out the series on Tuesday, August 4.

2. At 5:30 pm on the first Thursday of every month, Mount Vernon Park hosts a free concert by a band somewhere in the vicinity of indie pop. As a way to increase excitement, the act is only announced shortly before each performance. On July 2, it will be an Irish group called Guggenheim Grotto, of which I know nothing except that their album takes its name from a poem by Horace, which must be a good sign, right?

3. On three Wednesdays this summer (one of which has already passed) at 6:00 p.m., the Baltimore Museum of Industry on the Inner Harbor (1415 Key Highway) is the place for booze, barbecue, and free live music. The next installment of the series will be July 15, when Waylan James and the Futures will headline a show featuring several groups. And if all the jollity makes you restless, the museum will be open during the performance.

4. Belvedere Square (518 E. Belvedere Avenue) is the home of perhaps the longest and most prolific free music series in Baltimore. Fridays at 6:00 p.m. through September 4, the square will be filled with flocks of happy people surrounded by restaurants. This Friday, June 26, said people will be listening to the beach band, Fins. Perhaps you can discern the connection.

Where will you allow musicians to play for you at no charge this summer?

Posted in: Frugal Tuesday, Mount Vernon1 Comment