Outdoor Summer Concert Brings Community Together with Family-Friendly Tunes

By Maddie Mulligan

Families with blankets, soccer chairs, and strollers packed the lawn outside the Westwood Senior Center as the sound of acoustic music and singing children filled the air. As many parents lounged or conversed with friends, kids crowded in front of the stage for the interactive performance.

Photo by Maddie Mulligan. Families lounged on the lawn of Westwood's Senior Center, enjoying a free concert sponsored by Westwood Young Women's Club.

Vanessa Trien and the Jumping Monkeys took to the Senior Center’s gazebo on Monday, July 21, for a lively show aimed to delight the kids. The second show of the Summer Concert Series hosted by Westwood Young Women’s Club (WYWC), the event also featured pizza and ice cream for families to enjoy as they watched the performance.

Trien is a family music performer who has won multiple Parents’ Choice Awards for her albums of original songs. Radiating warmth throughout the performance, Trien kept the kids thoroughly entertained for the entire hour she sang.

Performing songs like “Tickle Monster” to wear down the kids’ endless energy and a firefighter song to spark the kids’ imagination by asking them to put on parts of a firefighter’s uniform, Trien and her band were the perfect entertainment for any family looking to get their kids active and social.

Photo by Maddie Mulligan. Vanessa Trien led children in an interactive, musical event outside Westwood's Senior Center.

The Summer Concert Series aims to keep kids engaged and give back to many of the families in town, according to Stephanie Yovchev, a member of WYWC and organizer for the event.

“We were looking for a summer event that kind of brings the community outside and together,” said Yovchev.

The WYWC raises money to go directly back into the community by supporting programs such as events at the public library or plays by the Westwood Early Childhood Council. The group started selling ice cream at last year’s concert series to raise more money than previous years. Since the group fundraises only through food sales as the event is free to attend, the group hopes to support more of the community by increasing sales.

With this goal, Trien and her band made for the perfect addition to the concert series as they brought out enough families to completely occupy the Senior Center’s lawn.

Besides songs to get kids moving and using their imaginations, Trien also included songs like “Bubble Ride” to make sure the kids were enthralled and not looking to run to the Tot Lot, the nearby playground. Walking around with two bubble machines, Trien sang joyfully as kids trailed behind her, jumping frantically to pop the bubbles.

Photo by Maddie Mulligan. Bubbles from two machines added to the entertainment, as Vanessa Trien and the Jumping Monkeys performed their songs.

For many parents attending the event, the performance was a perfect way to occupy the kids during the summer months. Being able to relax as the kids could be loose in a closed space, families even came from outside of Westwood to attend.

Christine Bellavance came from Roslindale with her 2, 4, and 6-year-old after having followed Trien for a number of years. With minimal traffic and many parents setting up their own spaces, Bellavance said her kids were able to go crazy and have fun.

“It's nice that they have facilities and everything else. I mean, this is amazing. We ended up with beautiful weather. It was kind of a good combination of everything,” said Bellavance.

Kids were able to truly let loose as Trien handed out colorful pieces of cloth for her butterfly song. Prompting kids to flap their wings or roll into a cocoon, Trien transformed the crowd of kids into a beautiful array of flashing colors.

Photo by Maddie Mulligan. Children were encouraged to play with colorful swathes of fabric to become butterflies during Vanessa Trien and the Jumping Monkey's butterfly song.

Photo by Maddie Mulligan. A child turns into a butterfly, with wings of colorful fabric on either side, during an interactive performance of Vanessa Trien and the Jumping Monkeys.

Trien’s show had everything a kid could be interested in sprinkled throughout the performance. Kids never ceased to laugh and smile as long as Trien was on stage, giggling throughout a call and response during “Down by the Bay” and wildly jumping up and down during “Monkey Jump.”

As the performance came to an end, groups of kids wandered back to their parents to beg to hang out more. It’s clear that the WYWC’s goal was reached with its Summer Concert Series by bringing the younger community together so successfully.

“It's wonderful because people can really get together,” said Yovchev.

The last performance of the Summer Concert Series is Monday, July 28, by the Stacey Peasley Band.

Thanks to Maddie Mulligan, student at Boston College, and head editor for the arts section of The Heights, an independent, student-run newspaper, for contributing this article to Westwood Minute. Ms. Mulligan is interning with Westwood Minute for the summer.

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