Organizers mull ending Bigfork concert series

After 35 summers of filling Bigfork with song, the Riverbend Concert Association may disband at the end of the month due to a lack of volunteers.

According to the association’s chair, 92-year-old Charlotte French, the summer concert series has brought the people of Bigfork together in Sliter Park since Edna Darrow started the project over three decades ago.

This year, however, the association has about five of the nine volunteers needed to keep the program going.

“People aren’t volunteering the way they used to,” French said. “It’s never been a problem before.”

Each summer, a team of volunteers has worked to select musicians, line up sponsors and host 10 concerts, drawing crowds to the grassy field in front of the park stage.

The crowds, according to French, have not decreased over the years and the interest in the concerts is as high as ever.

In recent years, however, as committed volunteers found themselves unable to continue serving, fewer and fewer new volunteers stepped up to fill their places.

French has volunteered with the Riverbend Concert Association almost as long as she has lived in Bigfork, nearly 20 years.

Usually by this time in years past, French has begun contacting musicians to play, but this year they have been contacting her, wondering whether they’ll get to perform this summer or not.

“I’m feeling just sick about it. It’s such a treasure to this community,” French said. “If [the concerts] mean enough to the community then we would get volunteers coming forward.”

The Riverbend Concert Association will make their decision about the future of the concert series March 1.

For more information about the concert series or to volunteer, contact French at (406) 837-2036 or cfbp@montanasky.net.

Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.