PB Town Council brings back free Concert on the Green Aug. 8

The Pacific Beach Town Council is resuming two of its events — Concerts on the Green and PAESAN (Police And Emergency Service Appreciation Night) Picnic — after they were derailed by the pandemic last year.

The free Aug. 8 concert at Kate Sessions Park, 5115 Soledad Road, will feature Dirty Bird, a band so local that Town Council president Marcella Bothwell said at the July 21 meeting: “They don’t need a reserved parking space. They literally can walk across the street.”

The concert is 4-6 p.m. Concessions will be available on site, including pizza by the slice from Woodstock’s Pizza and frozen treats from Yogurt on the Rocks.

Attendees should bring their own seating, whether blankets or low-back chairs that don’t block the view of people behind them.

“Dancing is required,” Bothwell said. “but dancing shoes are not.”

The 41st annual PAESAN Picnic honoring local police fire, lifeguards and Mission Bay park rangers will be held from 4-6:30 p.m. Sept. 22 at North Crown Point Shores. Tickets are $5 and free for children under 12 years old. This year, the Town Council will highlight and donate equipment and other gifts to the lifeguards.

Normally, the Town Council holds four concerts over the summer. But the council could only muster one this year because the state’s June 15 lifting of pandemic restrictions left little time to line up the permits, participants, sponsors, volunteers and other necessities for a successful concert, members said.

“We were basically waiting to see if the state was going to open up,” Bothwell explained. “With the shortened timeframe, we couldn’t do more than one.”

Some members of the Town Council’s board were hesitant of having even one concert, Bothwell said, especially with the accelerated spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant that could still cause a cancellation and forfeiture of the $5,000 fee.

However, all agreed that a concert would meet the pent-up demand for escape from the grind of pandemic measures over the past 18 months.

“I think we have been cooped up and stuck on Zoom for way too long,” Bothwell said. “Everybody wants to put their computers away and just do some dancing. We’re finally able to come back together and have fun.”