Ann Arbor Summer Festival

Program History

A community tradition

The Ann Arbor Summer Festival is an exhilarating celebration of performing arts, outdoor entertainment, and community spirit. A boutique music and arts festival, the three-week gathering offers dozens of performances, activities, exhibitions, and screenings representative of the best in music, dance, comedy, film, street arts, and family entertainment.

Founded by Eugene Power, and established as an equal partnership between the City of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan, the Ann Arbor Summer Festival presented its first full season in 1984. Early festival seasons emphasized classical music and theater, but have since become more popular and diverse in nature, encompassing a breadth of performance genres. What began with a vision for a summer cultural event that would connect audiences with world-class artists, bring community together, and showcase the city and state as a major arts destination, now flourishes as one of the leading multi-arts festivals in the country.

Today, the Ann Arbor Summer Festival produces two concurrent programs, one indoor and one outdoor, at various venues and spaces across the University of Michigan campus and in downtown Ann Arbor. The indoor Mainstage series includes ticketed performances of world-class music, dance, theater, and comedy. The outdoor program, Top of the Park, is held along a beautiful campus green and offers admission-free concerts, movies under the stars, open-air spectacles, and unique family attractions.

Now entering its 29th season, the Ann Arbor Summer Festival offers a progressive mix of regional, national, and international artists of all disciplines. Presenting over 100 scheduled events each season and attracting a diverse audience of 60,000 people, the festival continues to grow as a major cultural event in the Ann Arbor community, and as an internationally recognized celebration of arts that enriches the cultural, economic, and social vitality of the region.

For nearly three decades, the festival has hosted such luminaries as Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello, Dave Brubeck, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Marcel Marceau, Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Recent Mainstage seasons have featured Garrison Keillor, Willie Nelson, Gladys Knight, Chris Isaak, Diana Krall, Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Lyle Lovett, k.d. lang, Devo, Buddy Guy, John Hiatt, Los Lobos and Patty Griffin. In addition to its mainstream presentations, recent fringe and alternative offerings have included performances by John Waters, Sandra Bernhard, Dean & Britta, Neal Medlyn, Taylor Mac, Meow Meow, Die Roten Punkte, That 1 Guy, and Mucca Pazza.

Director’s Welcome

Join us in 2012

Preparing to celebrate our 29th season from June 15 through July 8, the Ann Arbor Summer Festival has brought the best local, national, and international performers to enthusiastic audiences for nearly three decades. For 21 amazing summer nights, we transform Ann Arbor into a lively arts destination, a place where friends, family, neighbors, and visitors can connect and share in a celebration of artistic inspiration, creativity, and community spirit.

Each season, over 100 events are presented in a program embracing music, dance, comedy, film, circus and street arts, and family entertainment. With an array of ticketed and free events, regional premieres, and Ann Arbor exclusives, I invite you to join us in 2012 to see some of the best artists from around the world and from our own backyard. We will announce our lineup in April 2012.

If you enjoy the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, I ask you to please consider making a donation to the festival today to help us maintain the high quality programs that you have come to love. Your contributions help us to offer the finest arts and cultural experiences from around the world, and to support local and regional artists by providing a platform for their creative aspirations and collaborations.

This is your festival, and we greatly appreciate your support and patronage.

Robb Woulfe
Executive Director

Mission & Leadership

Mission

The Ann Arbor Summer Festival’s mission is to present a world-class celebration of arts and entertainment that enriches the cultural, economic, and social vitality of the region.

Core Values

Excellence, Diversity, Relevance

Vision

The Ann Arbor Summer Festival aspires to be a nationally recognized arts festival and enduring local treasure – a widely anticipated, interactive hub of creative and community energy.

Strategic Plan

The Ann Arbor Summer Festival’s strategic plan is designed to clearly communicate the festival’s priorities and to guide the organization’s activities over the next five years.

Board of Trustees

Erik W. Bakker, Chair
JPMorgan Chase

Jerold Lax, Vice Chair
Pear Sperling Eggan & Daniels, PC

Kevin S. McDonald, Secretary
City of Ann Arbor

Michael S. Dubin, Treasurer
University of Michigan

James A. Kosteva, Imm. Past Chair
University of Michigan

LeAnn Auer
Ford Motor Company

Christie Wong Barrett
McKinsey & Company

Lisa Bee
Sweetwaters Cafe

Sally Churchill
University of Michigan

Paul Cousins
Community Volunteer

Tom Crawford
City of Ann Arbor

John W. Farah, DDS, PhD.
Enspire Dental

Peter B. Fayroian
Greenhills School

Erica Fitzgerald
Barris, Sott, Denn & Driker, PLLC

Dawn H. Foerg
Charles Reinhart Company

Stephanie Blackburn Freeth
The Henry Ford

Linda Girard
Pure Visibility

Susan J.D. Gott
University of Michigan

John Hieftje
City of Ann Arbor

Mary Kerr
Ann Arbor Area Convention and Visitors Bureau

Jon Kinsey
University of Michigan

Wendy Lawrence
Community Volunteer

Kenneth Magee
Ann Arbor Magic Shop

Sudha Maheshwari
Sanborn

Margaret B. McKinley
University of Michigan

Anthony Y. Nam
Nam Investments, LLC

Kimberly L. Scott
Miller Canfield

Ellie Serras
Main Street BIZ

Rich Sheridan
Menlo Innovations

Daniel Washington
University of Michigan

Trustees Emeriti

Paul C. Boylan
George D. Goodman
Margaret Massialas
J.P. Weidenbach

Management Team

Robb Woulfe
Executive Director

Amy Nesbitt
General Manager

Beth J. Johnson
Director of Development

Credits

Phire Branding Co.
Festival Branding

Myra Klarman
Festival Photography

University Lithographers
Festival Printing

Highlander Graphics
Festival Signage & Display

Consultants

Miller Canfield, Attorneys
Willis & Jurasek PC, Auditors & Tax Advisors
Betsy Lindsley, Bookkeeping Services
JJR, Landscape Architecture, Planning & Urban Design
DIDAKTIKOS, Technology & I.T. Consultant

Greening Efforts

Dedicated to the planet

In addition to our commitment to providing a first-rate entertainment experience, the festival is also committed to consciously greening our events and lowering our environmental impact wherever possible. We want to leave the planet, and Ingalls Mall in particular, as beautiful as we found it.

Starting in 2008, the festival launched an ambitious environmental initiative as a way to make a vocal and public commitment to raise awareness about green issues and to encourage the community to be more eco-conscious. Some of our current efforts include:

FOOD & BEVERAGE

*Requesting all food and beverage vendors use biodegradable or compostable packaging for their food and tableware, whenever possible

*Using cold drink cups from our beer distributor O&W that are made from PLA plastic derived from corn. PLA plastic is a compostable material that when placed in a commercial environment will naturally decompose back to organic elements.

*Engaging food and beverage vendors from the Ann Arbor community in an effort to support local businesses, and to decrease the amount of travel and fuel consumption required for product to get to the event.

*Promoting the efforts of our food vendors such as Silvio’s Organic Pizza, which works with organic ingredients and offers numerous options in their menu that do not include any animal products (vegan); as well as Glass House Cafe, which offers biodegradable containers and cutlery at its Top of the Park location.

*Working with our partners at Whole Foods Market and Coca-Cola to return and recycle cans and bottles more effectively from the festival site.

TRANSPORTATION

*Promoting alternative methods of transportation to and from festival events by encouraging attendees to use mass transit, car-pooling and bicycle racks. Local area bike enthusiasts are helping with this effort and promoting bike transportation to festival events all month long.

*Working with local vendors, service providers and staff whenever possible to conserve gas and transportation energy – reducing our carbon footprint on every level while we support ‘all things local’.

*Commuting and encouraging others to commute to our office and event site using hybrid vehicles, bicycles, and carpools.

*Partnering with BTB Party Bus to provide green transportation for patrons to and from festival events. Besides giving festival-goers a carbon-neutral way to get to Top of the Park -- BTB Party Bus runs on waste vegetable oil from Ann Arbor area restaurants -- the buses also provide patrons the opportunity to support the festival with $.50 of each fare donated back to us. Click here for more information.

MATERIALS & PRODUCTION

*Reusing/repairing as much of our production equipment as we can each season, thus keeping excess waste out of landfills.

*Printing our season program guide, brochures, calendar, letterhead, business cards, and other collateral materials using soy inks on various grades of recycled paper.

*Offering organic cotton for the festival apparel sold at the TOPshop.

*Accepting Top of the Park performer submissions electronically online via Sonicbids, an efficient and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional press kits.

*Asking caterers, food and beverage vendors to use recyclable or biodegradable products.

*Increasing the number of recycling bins at festival events, and ensuring that they are more prominently and clearly displayed.

FUN & EDUCATION

*Hosting a variety of environmentally-focused activities and entertainment at Top of the Park. Many of these events include numerous hands-on events at the KidZone tent.

*Presenting bands that are touring using bio-diesel vehicles and other environmentally friendly touring methods. These artists often talk about these choices from stage and on their websites.

*Encouraging all festival staff and patrons to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” in appropriate ways in our many areas of messaging.

There are many, many things the festival and the community can still do to improve our activities to lessen our impact on the environment, so please join us in doing all you can to “green” our collective activities!

Media Room