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It had been at least 50 years since Gloucester's I-4, C-2 site came alive as it did Sunday night.
From the afternoon sounds of singer-songwriter Inge Berge and Allen Estes to the minute that Roomful of Blues' third song inspired dozens of couples to literally dance in the makeshift aisles, the Celebrate Gloucester concert — masterfully pulled together by Peter and Vicki Van Ness — lit up a property that, after being dormant and tied up in red tape for decades, has also found a niche this summer as home to the Cape Ann Farmers Market and, at the very least, a functional city parking lot.
But Celebrate Gloucester wasn't about showing what can be done with the city's waterfront property. As spirited and uplifting as Sunday night's concert proved to be — with up to 1,000 people buying $15, $20 or even $95 VIP tickets that also benefitted of nonprofits nominated and chosen by the public — it's hard to believe a state bureaucracy balking over an aquarium proposal would somehow view a music venue as incorporating "marine industrial" connections.
And while it's front and center now, Gloucester's development future is certainly not limited or tied to the I-4, C-2 property. Perhaps the message Celebrate Gloucester sent loud and clear, as Van Ness noted in its afterglow, is the potential a significant music/arts venue could hold for a city so rich in contemporary music talent.
Indeed, on the heels of an August visit by Anita Walker, executive director of the Mass. Cultural Council, city officials would do well to name a panel focusing squarely on new strides in cultural economic development.
Consider that, on the same weekend Celebrate Gloucester lit up the I-4, C-2 property, singer-songwriter Livingston Taylor played to a full house at Rockport Music's Shalin Liu Performance Hall, with senatorial daughter and ex-American Idol contestant Ayla Brown among the openers. Following its chamber music festival, Rockport Music has done well by a series of contemporary concerts even beyond last month's sure-fire dual sellout shows featuring Rockport's own Paula Cole. Concerts featuring Tom Rush and Jonathan Edwards with James Montgomery have all drawn full houses — and drawn visitors to Rockport while spreading the town's reputation as a music destination.
Gloucester is very much on the map musically, with veteran home-based talent like Allen Estes, Fly Amero and guitarist David Brown now joined by relatively new local artists like Inge Berge, who takes his act next week to Boston's House of Blues next week. Then there's Jenny Dee and the Deelinquents, the rollicking group that includes Gloucester's Tony and Samantha Goddess and opened with a rousing set to kick off the Aug. 28 Fenway Park show for the J. Geils Band and Aerosmith.
What Gloucester can use — and what Celebrate Gloucester suggests it could support — is a concert hall or club for those artists and a wide variety of touring performers to play, ideally in a downtown location.
Gloucester needs to take a creative approach to economic growth. Celebrate Gloucester suggests that, indeed, music and economic development may be an ideal fit.
