In honor of international Make Music Day on Wednesday, June 21, Barnstable Land Trust (BLT) is celebrating its 40th anniversary and the official start to summer with a free participatory percussion concert at its Ropes Field conservation property in Cotuit with festivities starting at 5:30 pm.
The public is invited to BYOFP (bring your own flowerpot), a picnic as well as a blanket or lawn chair. Children can make pollinator-themed arts/crafts with the Cotuit Library staff and with Cape Cod CAN preceding the concert.
Flowerpot Music is a special initiative of the global Make Music Day which saw 104 U.S. cities and even more towns, host 3,819 free concerts in 2022. This concert marks the second year of the BLT-hosted concert on Cape Cod and puts both musical and nonmusical visitors and residents on the international ‘concert’ stage. Mallets will be provided free to participants (while supplies last). Su D’Ambrosio of Cape Symphony, will be the guest conductor, leading a 30- minute pre-concert rehearsal starting at 6:30 p.m. so that interested attendees can learn how to perform musical ‘blooms,’ ‘waves,’ ‘frisbees,’ and ‘travelling swells’ on their flowerpots. Warm-up activities start at 5:30 with pollinator-themed arts/crafts, hosted by the Cotuit Library and Cape Cod CAN. June 15-25 is also National Pollinator Week.
Free parking is available at the Lowell Park ballfield in Cotuit, where visitors can also explore BLT’s Lowell Park Woodlands hiking trail. Th event takes place rain or shine, except for heavy rain.
Other programs that week include a talk on “Honey Bees and Pollination Ecology” Tuesday, June 20, at 10 a.m., by Larry Dapsis from the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension; a Sandy Neck Beach Piping Plover walk (Tuesday, June 20, at 10 a.m.) and a Tech + Trails Hike at Eagle Pond in Cotuit, as part of the Hike Barnstable Challenge with the Appalachian Mountain Club/Southeastern Chapter.
“Barnstable Land Trust is excited to partner with local nonprofits for the return of the Flowerpot Music Concert,” said Janet Milkman, BLT’s executive director. “We can’t think of a better way to celebrate our 40th Anniversary than with community events like this one. Ropes Field is a BLT property in the heart of the Cotuit community that was an orchard originally and then part of the Ropes’ farm in the 1950’s. The iconic maple tree in the field’s center is symbolic of how important conservation is to honoring our past while protecting our future.”
A site-specific poem written by local poet Diane Hanna as part of BLT’s Words in the Wild 2022 initiative can also be experienced under the maple tree.
For for information about Barnstable Land Trust, visit visit http://www.BLT.org or call 508-771-2585.
