Got plans for a sweet date night to close out St. Valentine’s Day?
If not, you may want to cruise with your honey down 140th Avenue North on the evening of Sunday, Feb. 14 to Acreage Community Park and enjoy the Majesty of Rock — a tribute band featuring the music of Toto, Styx and Journey.
The music gets underway at 6:30 p.m., with upcoming concerts featuring different tribute bands generally scheduled the second Sunday of each month.
Concertgoers are urged to practice social distancing, in general, said event producer Davis Clapp, a fixture in the South Florida music community and an area resident. Those with more serious concerns can enjoy it all from your vehicle through the loudspeakers or even piped right through your car’s sound system. There also will be a 30-foot-by-50-foot video screen.
“With everyone worried about COVID-19, we want to keep everyone safe and social-distanced, but have a good time,” Clapp explained. “So, we said, ‘Let’s get creative. Let’s make it like a drive-in.’ And that’s what we’ve done.”
Beginning at 2 p.m., local vendors will be on site selling their products along with various food trucks. There also will be a car show and a kids’ zone. Beer and wine will be available, according to the Majesty of Rock web site.
The concert is the second in the “Rock Your Park” series sponsored by the Acreage Landowners’ Association partnering with Clapp’s production company, FM Generation.
“This is by the community and for the community,” said Clapp, noting that no tax dollars are being used to pay for the concerts. “It’s all through sponsorships purchased by local businesses and families.”
Sponsorships are $750 and $1,250 and include tented areas and prime seating directly in front of the stage. Sales of sponsorships have gone well, Clapp said.
Sunday night’s band, Majesty of Rock, is fronted by John D’Agostino, a longtime Florida resident who grew up in New York. He and his four bandmates “not only capture every nuance of Journey in their iconic Steve Perry days, but also the vocal essence of Dennis DeYoung and Tommy Shaw,” according to the group’s web site.
The first concert in the series was held Jan. 10 with the Southern Blood Allstars performing “A Salute to Southern Rock.”
“From the start, I wanted the concerts to be more than your normal tribute band show,” said Clapp, who grew up in the Seattle music scene before moving to Florida and becoming a professional competition fisherman. “I wanted to tell the story of the bands and music, and do it in a respectful way to those who made the music famous.”
Clapp, the former road manager for one of the industry’s best known Eagles tribute bands, The Long Run, said he’s proud of the concert series he’s producing in The Acreage because it helps musicians hard hit by the virus and fills a niche with the community’s new amphitheater.
“I asked the Acreage Landowners’ Association to please let me work with them to bring music and events back to the park,” Clapp said.
He then used Facebook to garner community input and “Rock Your Park” grew out of that, he said.
Future concerts include: Classic Rock All-Stars with MGN on March 14; Beer for Your Horses: A Toby Keith Tribute on April 11; Royal Flush featuring 56 Aces on May 9; and H20: The Hall & Oates Project on June 7.
For information about becoming a sponsor of the Rock Your Park series, call Clapp at (561) 324-8384. For information about becoming a vendor at the concerts, contact the ALA at events@acreagelandowners.com.
