Elizabeth Park Summer Concert Series-Bellingham,WA

05/25/2026

LESS THAN FOUR WEEKS AWAY TILL WE OPEN SEASON 2026!
Listen to our chat with musicians John Delaney from 4Tens Band, Akilah Williams from The Jansen Jazz Orchestra, and concert organizers Peter Roberts and yours truly, Marla Joy Simon Bronstein. This was so much fun, I may bring you snippets of future concerts here too!!

Arts & Entertainment Spotlight Host Margaret Bikman talks with Peter Roberts, Akilah Williams-Cariker, John Delaney and Marla Bronstein about the Elizabeth Park Summer Concert Series for 2026. The con

04/23/2026

SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE!! Thank you to Akilah Williams, John Delaney and Peter Roberts for joining me on KMRE 88.3 FM with Margaret Bikman. Listen here:

Arts & Entertainment Spotlight Host Margaret Bikman talks with Peter Roberts, AkilaH Williams-Cariker, John Delaney and Marla Bronstein about the Elizabeth Park Summer Concert Series for 2026. The con

04/21/2026

Our Summer concert series is set for food trucks this summer...Juanita's Mexican Food, Street Dogz, and Edaleen Dairy will see you on Thursdays from June 18 to August 20 at Elizabeth Park...

BUT....
The City of Bellingham is seeking food and beverage vendors for the upcoming season in OTHER parks.
The Request for Proposals (RFP) is now open for mobile food trucks, carts, and other food and beverage vendors interested in serving the community.
Submission deadline: April 28

04/03/2026

Summer is right around the corner!! Pick up the COB Playbook all over town, and check out page 23!

;-)

See you soon!!!

Bellingham Parks & Recreation Leisure Guide

04/02/2026

Every year each Walrus band member gets to pick a new (old) song for us to add to our repertoire. This year we also opened a contest to add a fan-submitted song and got SOOOO many great tunes from you! It was too many and too hard to decide so we implemented a bracket-style voting program to come down to a finalist. The computer would pick 2 to choose from at a time and each of us would vote with the winners going into the next round. When we got down to the final two we loved them so much we decided to do both so we have 2 Winners!

We will be debuting the winning songs along with some of our own picks this Saturday at The Beach at Birch Bay. Find out which tunes won and dance your adorable socks off with us. We play 4-7pm.

02/28/2026

Have fun!!

If you know Ed and Aileen, you know their love for the Mariners (and the sunshine). They kicked off their 43rd straight year at Mariners Spring Training in Arizona this weekend!
We’re grateful they still get to enjoy their annual dose of baseball and sunshine all at one time. 🤍

And listen .. this just might be the year of the Mariners. And yes we know, this may not age well. 😁🤞🏼

02/14/2026

More than 50 bands applied to play at Elizabeth Park this summer. Sadly, we don’t have more than 10 weeks to program music.

Over half of the submissions this year came from performing groups that have not played at the series for a while. About a dozen were brand-new bands and super bands!

Don't see you or your favorite band?, it may be because we are trying to not double-book bands being considered by Bellingham Parks and Rec, or we didn’t get three optional dates to choose from, or because we have not seen or heard your band perform live in the grouping they hoped to bring to the park, or because we would have booked EVERYONE OF YOU if we had more than 52 weeks in a year open.

Here’s the shakeout for 2026….(NOTE: There's already been a change....)

4Tens Band 6/18 Fun Classic Rock Party Music
The Sweet Goodbyes 6/25 Folk/Americana
Charmed Life 7/2 Classic Rock & Folk Rock Covers
Jansen Jazz Orchestra 7/9 Jazz, Blues & Much More
Bilongo w/Sabrina Gomez 7/16 Latin Jazz
The Unknowns 7/23 Juzz, Blues & Sultry Vocals
bandZandt 7/30 East County's Favorite Dance Band
The Brie Mueller Band 8/6 Top 40s, Pop, Rock & Blues
J.P. Falcon Band 8/13 Acoustic Covers & Originals
GrooveBot 8/20 High energy Funk experience

We're looking forward to this summer, as well as the opportunity to hear new groups perform in Whatcom County. If you know of a group we should hear and/or consider for next summer, please let us know!!

02/13/2026

Hey!! Great work Colin!! https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AYP8QCF9c/

Featured Member: Colin N.
You might recognize Colin from seeing him walk across town or dance his way through BSAC! Today Colin is celebrating day 600 of walking 10,000 steps or more a day; In 2025 Colin averaged just over 20,000 steps a day. In addition to walking and dancing Colin enjoys playing bunco each Thursday and the vegan lunch on Tuesdays. Next time you see Colin give him a wave hello.

01/31/2026

February 7 Deadline for submissions to perform Summer of 2026...I need to have my schedule set before the end of the month to meet Park's publicity deadline. If I haven't heard your band live at a performance or rehearsal. it's not too late!! See Details below!

Attention Band Schedulers!!!

I hope this finds you healthy and weathering out the PNW weather mood swings.

I am scheduling for 2026(!!) Elizabeth Park Concert Series in the next few weeks, so if you are interested in playing at the park after reading the information below, give me a couple of Thursday dates you are available between the 18th of June and the 20th of August. We’ll see if we can make this work!

These Family Friendly Events are presented in partnership by The Eldridge Society and Bellingham Parks and Recreation. Bands are scheduled at the beginning of the year. For the best chance of getting on the bill, please email me your submission as soon as possible, as I hope to have a schedule in place before the middle of February. ([email protected])

If you haven’t played at the park in the past six years, or if there are major changes to your group, I will need to have a current press packet with a sample of your music. Unless it’s been recently updated, if you sent me all this in the past two years, check with me before you go to any trouble pulling it together again. If I am NOT familiar with your group, or if you have changed substantially in the past year, are you playing somewhere locally soon? If you have not played the park before, have you been to other concerts at Elizabeth Park as an audience member?

Here's what you need to know (if you don't already)
1. You will be playing in our newly remodeled gazebo! If you haven’t seen the before and after, you can watch the play-by-play here:
https://youtu.be/EtjyiiC6AzE
You will need your own sound equipment and sound op. Sound needs to reach at least the part of the park where the food vendors usually park.
2. Set up starts at 4:00, play time is from 6-8. Please respect the park staff and return borrowed items by 8:30
3. This is completely funded by donations to The Eldridge Society, per Thursday performance…
4. Parks and Rec provides power, trash, recycling, and compost bins. Hand trucks and wheelbarrows are available for you to use to load and unload.
5. There will be two parking spots reserved for the band on Washington, right near the loading ramp. AND
6. The performance group that encourages the audience to bring in the most donations into the Gazebo box for the evening they perform will have an automatic "in" for the next Summer if wanted!!

THANKS!!

Marla Bronstein
Music Coordinator

For more information about our neighborhood park history.....https://www.cob.org/services/planning/historic/Pages/eldridge-district.aspxhttp://www.whatcomwatch.org/old_issues/v9i7.html ://whatcomwatch.org/index.php/article/elizabeth-park-whatcom-countys-first-official-park/https://www.whatcomtalk.com/2022/07/06/elizabeth-park-summer-concerts-have-enchanted-audiences-for-nearly-30-years/

01/22/2026

REMINDER!!! Summer is just around the corner!! 21 Thursdays from now!!
If you haven't sent in your availability and are interested in being part of our summer season, please let me know soon. See all the info in the post attached.

Attention Band Schedulers!!!

I hope this finds you healthy and weathering out the PNW weather mood swings.

I am scheduling for 2026(!!) Elizabeth Park Concert Series in the next few weeks, so if you are interested in playing at the park after reading the information below, give me a couple of Thursday dates you are available between the 18th of June and the 20th of August. We’ll see if we can make this work!

These Family Friendly Events are presented in partnership by The Eldridge Society and Bellingham Parks and Recreation. Bands are scheduled at the beginning of the year. For the best chance of getting on the bill, please email me your submission as soon as possible, as I hope to have a schedule in place before the middle of February. ([email protected])

If you haven’t played at the park in the past six years, or if there are major changes to your group, I will need to have a current press packet with a sample of your music. Unless it’s been recently updated, if you sent me all this in the past two years, check with me before you go to any trouble pulling it together again. If I am NOT familiar with your group, or if you have changed substantially in the past year, are you playing somewhere locally soon? If you have not played the park before, have you been to other concerts at Elizabeth Park as an audience member?

Here's what you need to know (if you don't already)
1. You will be playing in our newly remodeled gazebo! If you haven’t seen the before and after, you can watch the play-by-play here:
https://youtu.be/EtjyiiC6AzE
You will need your own sound equipment and sound op. Sound needs to reach at least the part of the park where the food vendors usually park.
2. Set up starts at 4:00, play time is from 6-8. Please respect the park staff and return borrowed items by 8:30
3. This is completely funded by donations to The Eldridge Society, per Thursday performance…
4. Parks and Rec provides power, trash, recycling, and compost bins. Hand trucks and wheelbarrows are available for you to use to load and unload.
5. There will be two parking spots reserved for the band on Washington, right near the loading ramp. AND
6. The performance group that encourages the audience to bring in the most donations into the Gazebo box for the evening they perform will have an automatic "in" for the next Summer if wanted!!

THANKS!!

Marla Bronstein
Music Coordinator

For more information about our neighborhood park history.....https://www.cob.org/services/planning/historic/Pages/eldridge-district.aspxhttp://www.whatcomwatch.org/old_issues/v9i7.html ://whatcomwatch.org/index.php/article/elizabeth-park-whatcom-countys-first-official-park/https://www.whatcomtalk.com/2022/07/06/elizabeth-park-summer-concerts-have-enchanted-audiences-for-nearly-30-years/