Between our Iowa Cubs baseball games, our 4th of July parades, our state and county fairs, our sweet corn festivals, and our hard work raising crops to feed America, it’s hard to beat Iowa for all-American summer life. Yet another thing that brings communities here together is free live municipal band concerts in the city square!

Since 1864, the Oskaloosa Municipal Band has been treating its local Iowa community to rousing band music, making them reportedly the oldest band west of the Mississippi.
Laura S. / Used With Permission
You can hear them every Thursday night at 8:00 p.m. in June, July, and early August.
Laura S. / Used With Permission
The musicians vary in age from teenagers to 70-year-olds, and they play marches by John Philip Sousa, hymns, familiar movie themes, and plenty of patriotic songs. Every concert begins with the National Anthem, and it's wonderful to hear a whole city block swelling with patriotic voices, young and old!
Oskaloosa City Band / Facebook

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The band also regularly features music published by Oskaloosa's own C.L. Barnhouse Company, one of the world's oldest music publishers specializing in band music (C.L. Barnhouse Co has been publishing band music since 1886).
C.L. Barnhouse Company / Facebook
Even the bandstand itself is noteworthy. Built in 1912 and on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983, it's a beautiful piece of architecture.
Laura S. / Used With Permission
Local businesses provide free popcorn and lemonade at these Oskaloosa Music In The Park events, and Snobiz is usually there to sell icy treats. For the last song, helpers hand out bubbles for kids to blow as they skip around the bandstand. Your whole family will enjoy the evening!
Laura S. / Used With Permission
So bring a lawn chair or claim a bench and get ready for a beautiful evening on the shady, flower-filled square. Or ... join the cars that park along the square, windows down, and honk along with the crowd's applause.

 

Have you ever been to an Oskaloosa City Band Concert? Learn more on their Facebook page. Other communities have summer band concerts, too: check out nearby Pella City Band along with their weekly activities on the Tulip Toren, or the summer concert series in Boone, Sioux City, and Orange City. What a fun way to bring our communities together for good times, outdoor fellowship, and great music! And it’s not just summer fun that Oskaloosa does right – check out the town’s winter get-up.

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Oskaloosa, IA 52577, USA