Each week has seen a larger and larger crowd at Concerts in the Park/Family Night Out/Farmers Market in downtown Riverbank.
Hosted each Wednesday throughout the summer, tonight’s featured activities should draw the biggest crowd of the year so far, with free Kids Safety Night and Bicycle Rodeo scheduled on Seventh Street, between Santa Fe and Stanislaus, next to Community Center Park, where all the usual activities will occur as well.
Sign-ups for the free backpack giveaway will continue at the Chamber of Commerce booth, and on the concert stage, Patty Castillo Davis will be the featured performer.
Continuing from week to week, area farmers offer up their fresh fruits and vegetables for sale and several different kinds of food are also available to purchase. For the youngsters, the Bounce House remains a popular free activity, plus others provided by the city Recreation and Parks Department staff. The playground is also popular for the active youngsters.
Also, entries continue to be taken for a pair of free tickets for grandstand seats at the Modesto Nuts/Bakersfield Blaze baseball game. That game is set for Saturday, July 23, which also happens to be ‘Riverbank Night’ at John Thurman Field in Modesto. Game time is 7:05 p.m.
Another, recently added feature of Family Night Out includes an informal Classic Car Show. Market goers are welcome to check out the cars, then vote for their favorite, in a contest being sponsored by the city’s Chamber of Commerce. The tabulation will be made in coming weeks, with the winner announced at a later date.
The small but growing band of Classic Car enthusiasts gathers each week at the Family Night Out in Riverbank. The turnout has been flourishing from week to week, with what started as a few cars at first becoming a dozen or so cars last week.
The weekly Certified Farmers Market originated in 2003, sponsored by the City of Riverbank, and held on Santa Fe Street between Second and Third.
Through the years, sponsorship has changed and its location has moved around town, to Community Center Park, to Plaza del Rio Park, to the Galaxy Theatre parking lot and back to Community Center Park, where it remains now.
The event has grown to include free Concerts in the Park and Family Night Out, and this year features free movies from the Marvel Studios library, shown for free after dark. Tonight’s film, July 6, is The Avengers.
