Around Phoenixville

This Friday night, stop by the Children's Plaza to check out Phoenixville's own Coco Butter Band . The Coco Butter Band is an original 2-man blues/funk/soul band based out of Phoenixville who perform all over the Philadelphia and surrounding areas. The band features Liam Bouterre on keyboards/vocals and his brother Nate "Coco" Maskeri on drums/vocals. After years of playing as "musicians for hire" in various bands, in April of 2013 Liam and Coco decided to form their own band with Liam playing bass lines and soloing on the organ and Coco holding down the groove, all while singing. They are currently in the process of taking over the Philly original music scene playing many popular music venues, local festivals, and bars. Their talent and infectious groove was noticed by internationally touring blues/rock band, Trampled Under Foot (TUF), who invited them to open for their CD release party in Kansas City for 1,200 fans and to sit in with them at The House ...

The fifth annual Summer Music Series schedule has been announced. The Main Street CDC has finalized plans for the Summer Street Music Series. This year all events will be held on Friday. The series is currently in it’s fifth year and offers a variety of entertainment on the street on Fridays from the first Friday in June to the first Friday in September. The Street Music Series features local acts throughout the downtown starting at 6 PM. Many of the acts are local and from the surrounding community. In addition to the music acts there will be magic acts, balloon sculpture as well as hacky sack games. The Main Stage acts start at 7:30 and go to approximately 9:30 PM. View the full schedule here

This year's July 4th celebrations will start a day early to coincide with First Friday and the Summer Street Music Festival . The music festival will kick off at 6pm tomorrow night with headliner The Left Edge taking the main stage at 7:30. At around 8pm, the 100 block of Bridge Street will close so that people can position themselves for the fireworks display which is set to start at approximately 9pm 9:45pm (see below). On Saturday, the music festival, as usual, kicks off at 2pm. At the same time, the first annual Phoenixville Idiotarod will begin. Rain date for the fireworks in Sunday, July 5th. For the first time in three years, it does not appear rain will be an issue but, as its also First Friday, one never knows. 7/3/09 Update Barry Cassidy just posted the following on Facebook Fireworks tonight at 9 45 downtown phonexville...music starts at 6...main stage at 7:30 have a really good cover band playing tonight...the left edge...closing down the 100 block of bridge at ...

The Summer Street Music Festival kicks off on Friday night along with the rest of the First Friday festivities. This year, the music festival will not only bring live music to the downtown area on Friday nights but also on Saturday afternoons. As in past years, music will start at 6pm on Friday nights with the main act taking the stage at 7:30. On Saturday's, the music will start at 2pm. For a list of performers, visit mainstreetphoenixville.org .

September's First Friday marks the end of what has been considered another very successful Summer Music Series. As they have in the past, Splintered Sunlight will headline the series' final evening, bringing to Phoenixville a chance to enjoy the music of the Grateful Dead. Elsewhere throughout the downtown, ten other groups will be performing from 6-8pm. For more on tonight's festivities, see yesterday's article in The Phoenix .

Note, this is for the 2008 July 4th Celebration, click here for the 2009 schedule July 4th promises to be an activity packed one as we are faced with a sort of perfect storm of events. Not only are fireworks once again planned, we also have First Friday and the Summer Street Music Series . Because of this, this year the fireworks will be held downtown to coincide with the rest of the events. The Alexandra Day Band kicks things off at 2pm with a concert at the corner of Bridge and Main. Following them at 3pm will be Telleri Band and at 4 the Michael Packer Blues Band takes the stage. Finally, headlining the day is Craig Newell's Evening with Elvis . All of this will be accompanied by the usual First Friday festivities. The evening will end with a firework celebration scheduled to begin around 9:30. And for those of you who missed the fireworks last year because of the weather, the early report is for a 30% chance of isolated thunderstorms, which is pretty much par for the co...

As promised a while back (and not followed through on), here is an overview of things going on around town this weekend: Tonight Molly Maguire's Summer Street Music Series - 6-9pm. Headliner this week is Beatnik Brown who takes the stage at 7:30. From their website, Beatnik Brown is described as "Philly Improvisational Rock with a side of Funk. Always out to make it new, this is a jam band that actually jams!". Saturday Phoenixville Farmers Market - 9am-1pm Sunday Canal Day 2008 - 9am-4pm Lock 60 on the Schuylkill Canal and Saint Michael's Park, Mont Clare, PA. Annual Canal Day celebration featuring "5.5 mile Trail Run & 2 mile Loop Walk; Paddle Boat & Canoe/Kayak Races; 3 Lock Openings with audience participation; K-9 Rescue Demo; Always Exciting CANAL JOUST; Back by popular demand CANAL VAULTING!; Fishing Derby; Highland Games; Face Painting; Kids Games and Arts & Crafts; Orbitron and Trampoline Thing; Business Expo with lots of give-aways! ...

Molly Maguire's , this year's main sponsor of the Molly Maguire's Summer Music Series, has setup a website for this year's festivities. The site is at http://www.phoenixvillesummers.com/ and has a complete schedule of headlining bands as well as some additional information about the music series.

Last Thursday I stopped in to say hello to Barry Cassidy. While there, I picked up a flyer highlighting events that are coming up in the next several months. Some of the highlights that have been mentioned previously include the Celtic Street Fair on May 10th, the Summer Music Series and BlobFest . In addition to these, June's First Friday will kick off Dollar Days, a two day sale by downtown merchants. The sale runs from 10am-8pm on Friday, June 6th and then again from 10am-5pm on Saturday, June 7th. Two weeks later, to celebrate the start of Summer, a Festival of Summer Solstice will be held downtown. Finally, on August 29th there will be a Marine Night. In addition to all of these events, the summer months will feature the opening of several new restaurants in town as well as some new retail stores. Stay tuned for more information.

Barry Cassidy updated his blog with this year's Summer Music Series Molly Maguire’s Summer Street Music Series schedule. Below are the details: June 6 Mason Porter - Blue Grass June 13 Octavia & the Earthblood Blues Band June 20 Dirk Quinn Band - Rock June 27 Beatnik Brown - Rock July 4 Evening with Elvis featuring Tony Newell July 11 Paul Michaels Blues Recruits July 18 MILAGRO , Santana Tribute July 25 Hidden Treasure – Jazz band August 1 Beaucoup Blue -Blues August 8 Mystic Rebel - Reggae August 15 Deb Callahan Band August 22 Soft Parade – Doors Tribute August 29 Black Dog – Led Zeppelin Tribute September 5 Splinter Sunlight – Grateful Dead Tribute Due to the closing of the Gay Street Bridge, this year's concerts will be held in the parking lot at the corner of Bridge and Main Street's.