Top of the Park down to earth

Top of the Park down to earth

Summer event debuts at temporary site Friday

BY MARIANNE RZEPKA

News Staff Reporter

If you normally use East Washington Street to get to work, make a note to avoid the block between Thayer and Fletcher streets starting Monday.

The barricades go up then, when the Ann Arbor Summer Festival’s Top of the Park sets up shop for its annual 24^3ay run starting Friday.

Usually held on the top deck of the University of Michigan’s Fletcher Street parking structure, the popular Top of the Park program is being pushed out onto the nearby street by an extensive, renovation project at the garage.

TOP presents free music and movies and serves as a meeting place for community members, with food and beverage vendors on hand. The program, which attracts an estimated 60,000 people each summer, serves as a complement to the festival’s ticketed performances at U-M’s Power Center and Hill Auditorium.

During the two-year construction project, TOP will use East Washington Street to station food vendors, a beer garden, a stage with space for dancing and an inflatable movie screen, said festival director Robb Woulfe.

Since the Fletcher parking structure is closed, TOP patrons and those heading for ticketed performances can try looking for parking on Palmer Drive off Washtenaw Avenue in the new structure next to the Life Sciences complex, Woulfe said.

However, some of the elevators and stairways there will close before the events do, so festival staff will set up a number of signs showing ways to get from one point to the other.

The festival’s Web site - annar-borsummerfestival.org - lists other places to park. “We are doing the most we can to say, ‘Here are some options and come early,”’ Woulfe said.

In the past, a drop-off zone was set up on Fletcher at East Washington. That will be in place again this year, but on the west side of the street. The relocation of TOP set the Summer festival off on a fundraising effort to cover extra costs, such as more security and renting the inflatable screen.

the fundraising goal of $55999 for the new location was reached, Woulfe said, even while regular fundraising for the entire festival was going on.

"For this year, I think we're in good shape," he said, adding that now, "I'm just going to try to enjoy it."

Now more than 20 years old, the Summer Festival is a non-profit town-grown organization with a board of directors made up of city and university appointees.

the festival ends July 9: Washington Street reopens July 11.

But only a week later on July 17, that block of Washington Street will close again - and reopen on the afternoon of July 18 for the Ann arbor Art Fairs Townie Street Fair.

The street will remain open during the run of the art fairs.

The street Art Fair usually closes Washington Street to set up artists' booths. But because of the parking structure construction and some interior demolition work on U-M's Frieze Building, which is due to come down this fall, those booths will move onto nearby Ingalls Mall. Artist booths will remain along North University Avenue as part of the Street Art Fair, one of four fairs that run from July 19 to July 22 this year. 

Marianne Rzepka can be reached at 734-994-6820

mrzepka@annarbornews.com

LARRY E. WRIGHT,THE ANN ARBOR NEWS

Above, construction at the Fletcher Street parking structure, the longtime site of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival's Top of the Park, will go on this year and next. Below, a view of the 2004 festival from the same perch. A map of TOP'S temporary site is on page All.

NEWS FILE PHOTO

Summer Festival starts Friday

■ What: Performances at the University of Michigan's Power Center and Hill Auditorium - with acts including Ani DiFranco,the Reduced Shakespeare Company and the Capitol Steps - along with music, food and movies at Top of the Park on East Washington Street at Ingalls Mall, between Fletcher and Thayer streets.

■ When: June 16 through July 9.Top of the Park vendor sales begin at 6:30 p.m. Bands usually start at 7 p.m. Movies show Sunday through Thursday at dusk.

■ More details: For information about ticketed performances, Top of the Park events and special workshops, calf 734-764-2538 or check the festival Web site, www.annarborsummerfestival.org.

See The Ann Arbor News' Sunday Entertainment section for the lineup of performers at this year's Top of the Park.

SEE FESTIVAL, All