Put-in-Bay Barber Shop Quartets Return!
Seventy years ago, that’s when it started! A barbershop quartet accepted their neighbor’s request to come up to Middle Bass Island and entertain his friends. It was so popular that two quartets came the next year. Thus the Put-in-Bay Barber Shop Quartets were born and continued until the 1990s when we had five international champion quartets. I doubt if that has been matched anywhere else since it was free at Put-in-Bay and just a few dollars at Middle Bass.
This year Put-in-Bay Barber Shop Quartets will feature 15 or more quartets, and the 60+ men’s chorus will perform Friday, August 11th, at 7 p.m. on the back porch of the Put-in-Bay Monument Visitors Center across from DeRivera Park.
In case of rain or threatening weather, the decision will be made at about 3:30 p.m. whether to move the event, and you can call the Visitors Center for the decision. The Put-in-Bay school gym is our alternative, with the entrance across the street from the ball diamond. As always, the nationally recognized comic Hot Air Buffoons will be here, but it is too early to confirm others. This year’s “good cause” will be the two churches. Whatever we collect will be halved and equally given to the two Put-in-Bay churches.
The Saturday night performance will be at 7 p.m. at the now air-conditioned Put-in-Bay Town Hall, and they will probably have an additional top quartet or two since some work Friday and can’t make it to Put-in-Bay. One thing in our favor is that on Friday and Saturday, the Barber Shop Quartets get to pick their songs, which ensures a good variety, and some of the better quartets will sing their competition song(s) since they have been practiced to perfection.
So bring a donation and, if outside, a chair and cushion and enjoy those neat chords by the Put-in-Bay Barber Shop Quartets.
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