Spring is here, and the District’s Fox affiliate aims to bring fun to the downtown crowd with a series of free concerts at Farragut Square Park. The first will happen Friday.
Margie Ruttenberg, director of news projects and partnerships at WTTG Fox 5, said that the concerts give local musicians a chance to have greater exposure to District audiences in an outdoor setting as the springtime temperatures climb.
“We wanted to find some great bands [play] in a great venue,” Ms. Ruttenberg told The Washington Times. “We figured we’ve really got something here, and we kind of ran with it.”
Ms. Ruttenberg worked in tandem with Fox 5 entertainment reporter Kevin McCarthy to choose the lineup for the shows, which will occur over the next three Fridays. One of them, Sound of the City, features his colleague, Kenny Martin, on percussion.
“He’s an amazing musician,” Mr. McCarthy said. “Every time I talk to Kenny he’s always talking about music. They’ve been the backup band or the band for many national acts that have come through the D.C. area.”
“I think he represents [the] Washingtonian kind of musician who have these day jobs and then their real passion is when they get together with their band and play music,” Ms. Ruttenberg said of Mr. Martin. “I think that is big in this city.”
Sound of the City will debut a new song, “Run,” Friday as part of the series.
Mr. McCarthy will MC some of the concerts, switching off with his Fox 5 colleagues.
“Farragut Square is the perfect area,” Mr. McCarthy said. “There’s so many people walking in so many different directions, and any person can walk by at any time and kind of catch a glimpse of what’s going on.”
Ms. Ruttenberg believes that District audiences will also appreciate getting to know more about their homegrown musicians. Fox’s “Good Day DC” frequently has on musical guests, however they are typically nationally known names promoting shows in the nation’s capital. All of those performing at the Farragut Square Park concerts, she said, are locally based.
“We thought it was strange that no one thought to do this yet,” she said. “We figured we’d take it downtown.
“We hope it will be success, and we think it will be.”
• Eric Althoff can be reached at twt@washingtontimes.com.
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