Air Force Band Playing At Riverfront Park

What makes summer summer? Some quintessential elements that determine the hot season in my mind are baseball, picnics and band concerts in the park. For the first two of those, you’re on your own, but I can help with the band part.

The 560th Air Force Band, a National Guard unit stationed at Fairchild, will be performing a free hour-long concert in the Clock Tower Meadow of Riverfront Park at noon on Friday.

The 38-piece band, under the direction of Capt. Matthew Wilson, has toured the world. In recent years, the band has acted as American ambassadors to Australia and Jamaica, performed extensively in this country and released the first CD by a National Guard band.

Friday’s free concert culminates a mini-Northwest tour which has included Coeur d’Alene, Lewiston and Pullman. In addition to patriotic fare, the performance will include Leonard Bernstein’s “Slava!” and selections from Alan Mencken’s score to “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”