It was a perfect clear and breezy spring evening on June 4 for the Blackbird Society Orchestra’s return to the Glen Providence Park. The park’s historic WPA-era stage was absolutely the ideal venue to host Blackbird’s 1930’s era big band jazz and kickoff the Friends of Glen Providence Park’s 2022 Arts in the Park season.

Opening with the theme song from the Little Rascals shorts, the orchestra swung right into Roaring 20’s numbers Happy Days Are Here Again and Bessy Couldn’t Help It – reproduced note for note from the original 78rpm recordings.

The Louis Armstrong 30’s hit Mahogany Hall Stomp and That’s My Baby Now by the The Nighthawk Jazz Band nailed the sound and tempo of the flapper era to a “T”.

The band, the audience and the glen came together for another beautiful evening of entertaining music here in Everybody’s Park in  Everybody’s Home Town.

You can see their performance on YouTube (also linked below) thanks to volunteer Carol Carmon. In ten seasons of concerts, Blackbird Society Orchestra is the first performer we have brought back! You can see photos and a recap from their 2015 concert.

Many thanks to all who made this concert possible: Delaware County Parks & Recreation; a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; Concert Series Sponsors Media Recreation Board and West End Flats; Concert Sponsor Shere-E-Punjab Indian Restaurant; our volunteer Concert Committee; the well over 250 people who attended; and of course Blackbird Society Orchestra!

Our 2022 Arts in the Park was made possible by funding from Program Stream, a grant initiative of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts that is regionally administered by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. 

Click on any photo for a closer look!

COVID notice: All of our events will follow the latest COVID protocols. All will require masks and physical distancing, and most will have attendance limits with email pre-registration required. All events are subject to change or cancellation due to COVID.

See the individual events in our Calendar for more information and logistics. All events are family-friendly and free to pre-registered participants. We hope to see you in the park!

Friends of Glen Providence Park
2021 Schedule of Events

10th Anniversary History & Nature Walk with Marcia Tate & Stephanie Gaboriault
Saturday, January 30, 2:00-4:00pm
Meet at State Street entrance
Rain, snow, or shine

Love Your Park Walk with Chris McNichol
Saturday, February 20, 10:00am-12:00pm
Meet at 3rd & West Street entrance
Rain, snow, or shine

CRC Streams Clean-up
Saturday, March 20, 9:00-11:00am
Meet at State Street entrance
Rain or shine

Nature Walk with Rick Ray
Saturday, April 10, 1:30-3:00pm
Entrance TBA
Rain or shine

Spring Bird Walk with Dave Eberly
Saturday, May 15, 8:00-10:00am
Meet at 3rd & Kirk Lane entrance
Rain or shine

2021 Arts in the Park!
We are delighted to hold the concerts this year that were postponed from 2020 due to COVID. See our Arts in the Park announcement for details, and our Calendar for individual listings.
All Saturdays, 5:00-6:30, with Sunday rain dates:

• Soul & Jazz Pop Fusion with Danie Ocean on June 26
• Rhythm & Soul with Paul Downie & Friends on July 10
• Charming & Virtuosic Classical Guitar with the Kossler Duo on August 7
• African Folkloric Performance Art with Malidelphia on September 11

National Public Lands Day Plantings 
Saturday, October 2, 9:00–12:00 noon
Location TBD
Rain date Sunday, October 3

Green Friday Walk with Holly Hoffmann & Aura Lester
Friday, November 26, time tba — RESCHEDULED to Saturday, December 4
Meet at State Street entrance
Drizzle, snow, or shine

Christmas Bird Count
Saturday, December 18, 8:30-10:30am
Meet at 3rd & West Street entrance
Rain, snow, or shine

Keep Media Green will be holding a spring volunteer event on Saturday, April 24 at 10:00am, with Glen Providence Park as one of the locations.

The Great Media Easter Egg Hunt could not be held this year by Media Lions & McCarrin Chiropractic. It’s the park’s longest-running event, held annually since 1954, until it was canceled in 2020 & 2021 due to COVID.

Updates:

• Start time for April’s nature walk updated on 3-19-2021
• Date for National Public Lands Day updated on 4-6-2021, and changed back(!) on 4-15-2021
• Arts in the Park concerts added on 5-25-2021! Also noted that the Egg Hunt could not be held.

See the individual events in our Calendar for more information and logistics. All events are free, family-friendly, and open to the public – we hope to see you in the park!

Friends of Glen Providence Park
2020 Schedule of Events

Schedule subject to change – please check back to confirm times, details, and meeting locations.

UPDATE: Covid-19 cancelations and postponements are noted below.

Winter Discovery Walk with Mike Rolli
Sunday, January 26, 1:00-3:00pm
Meet at State Street entrance
Rain, snow, or shine

Love Your Park Walk with Chris McNichol
Saturday, February 15, 10:00am-12:00pm
Meet at 3rd & West Street entrance
Rain, snow, or shine

Geology Walk with Charles Randall
Saturday, March 7, 2:00-4:00pm
Meet at 3rd & West Street entrance
Rain, snow, or shine

CRC Streams Clean-up – POSTPONED
Saturday, April 4, 9:00-10:30am
Meet at State Street entrance
Rain or shine

Spring Bird Walk with Dave Eberly – CANCELED
Saturday, May 9, 8:00-10:00am
Meet at 3rd & Kirk Lane entrance
Rain or shine

Arts in the Park: Kossler Duo – POSTPONED TO JUNE 2021
Saturday, June 27, 5:00-6:30pm
Main entrance
Rain date Sunday, June 28

Arts in the Park: Paul Downie & Friends – POSTPONED TO 2021
Saturday, July 11, 5:00-6:30pm
Main entrance
Rain date Sunday, July 12

Arts in the Park: Danie Ocean – POSTPONED TO 2021
Saturday, August 22, 5:00-6:30pm
Main entrance
Rain date Sunday, August 23

Arts in the Park: Malidelphia – POSTPONED TO 2021
Saturday, September 12, 5:00-6:30pm
Main entrance
Rain date Sunday, September 13

National Public Lands Day – POSTPONED
Saturday, October 3, 9:00–12:00 noon
Location TBD
Rain date Sunday, October 4

Wicked Plants & Ghost Walk with Marcia Tate & Stephanie Gaboriault – POSTPONED TO 2021
Saturday, October 31, time tba — Glen Providence’s 85th Anniversary!
Location tba
Drizzle, snow, or shine

Green Friday Walk with Holly Hoffmann & Aura Lester
Friday, November 27, time tba
Meet at State Street entrance
Drizzle, snow, or shine

Christmas Bird Count
Saturday, December 19, 8:00-10:00am
Meet at 3rd & West Street entrance
Rain, snow, or shine

And don’t forget the Great Media Easter Egg Hunt held by Media Lions & McCarrin Chiropractic – it’s the park’s longest-running event, held annually since 1954! This year’s date is Saturday, April 4 at 11:00am (sharp!), State Street entrance. – CANCELED

Join us for a bird walk in Glen Providence Park during spring migration! We’ll look for warblers and other migrants, and see if we can add to the 127 species on the Park Bird List. We will be led by Dave Eberly – a lifelong birder, for the past 27 years, he has participated in the Christmas Bird Count (CBC), the world’s longest-running Citizen Science project. For the past 10 years, he has taken on the important task of compiling all CBC data for Delaware County!

Spring Bird Walk

Saturday, May 5, 2018
8:00-10:00am
*Kirk Lane entrance
Rain or shine

Logistics:

• * Please note the location- we are starting at the Upper Providence entrance at Third Street and Kirk Lane. *
• Estimated distance: 1-1.5 miles
• Estimated time: 2 hours
• Rain or shine
• Free!
• Be prepared for steep hills, and uneven (possibly wet) terrain: wear your hiking shoes, bring a hiking pole if you use one… and of course binoculars and your favorite bird book or app!

Join us for a geology tour of Glen Providence Park! We are bringing back one of our most popular walks – Charles Randall will explain the geological history of the area, and he’ll put the rocks of the park into the regional picture. To supplement the rocks we can find, he will bring samples of what’s likely to be under the biology.

Geology Walk

Saturday, March 17
10:00-12:00 noon
Entrance at 3rd & West Streets
Rain date Saturday, March 24

Logistics:

• * Please note the location – we are starting at the entrance at Third and West Streets in Media. *
• Be prepared for uneven (possibly wet) terrain: wear sturdy shoes that can get wet.
• Free & family-friendly
• If the weather is questionable, we will post on Facebook and our website on Saturday by 9:00am whether we use our rain date (the following Saturday).

Join us for a winter walk in Glen Providence Park with Naturalist Chris McNichol, as he shows us the park through his eyes. Chris is a wealth of information on many topics – he teaches boat building, survival skills, rocketry, woodworking, fire starting, foraging, and mechanics at Open Connections, a local homeschool resource center. This will be the third winter walk that he has led for us!   

Naturalist Walk & Talk

Saturday, February 24
10:00-12:00 noon
Entrance at 3rd & West Streets, Media
Rain, snow, or shine!

Logistics:

• Free!
• Meet at entrance at 3rd & West Streets, Media
• As always, kids are welcome!
• Estimated time: 2 hours
• Be prepared for steep hills, and uneven (possibly wet or snowy) terrain: wear your hiking shoes, and bring a hiking pole if you use one… and of course binoculars!

Join certified arborist Mike Rolli for a walk through the winter woods in Glen Providence Park! Those who attended our Fall Tree Walk in November know the remarkable depth and breadth of Mike’s knowledge of our local trees and plants, and the fascinating details he shares. He has worked on an extensive botanical survey of the species to be found in the glen. We are delighted to have Mike lead another walk!  

The Forest in Winter

Saturday, January 20
2:00-4:00pm
Main entrance, 550 West State Street, Media
Rain date Sunday, January 21

Logistics:

• Free!
• Meet at main entrance on West State Street, Media
• As always, kids are welcome!
• Estimated time: 2 hours
• Be prepared for steep hills, and uneven (possibly wet or snowy) terrain: wear your hiking shoes, and bring a hiking pole if you use one.
• Binoculars and nature guides encouraged.
• If the weather is questionable, we will post on our website and Facebook by noon on Saturday whether we will use the rain date.

Join two local science teachers for a fall nature walk in Glen Providence Park! Best for ages 5-11. Please register your nature lover so that we have enough materials for all. Led by Holly Hoffmann and Aura Lester.

Kids Nature Walk!

Saturday, October 7
10:30am-12:00noon
Rain date Sunday, October 8, 10:30-12:00
Main entrance, 550 W. State St., Media

Logistics:

• Registration is required – attendance is limited to 18 children. RSVP by emailing FriendsoftheGlen [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
• Meet at the main entrance (top of the sledding hill).
• Free!
• Approximate length: 1.5 hours.
• Be prepared for hilly terrain  – wear sturdy shoes!
• If the weather is questionable, we will post on our website and facebook by 9:30am on Saturday whether we will use the rain date.

For the penultimate* performance in our free and family-friendly 2017 Arts in the Park, Friends of Glen Providence Park is delighted to present Eco del Sur for Andean & Latin American folk music! Founded in 2000 by musicians from Colombia and Ecuador, Eco Del Sur means “Echoes of the South.” They play a wide range of styles and rhythms influenced by the Pre-Columbian, Spanish, and African cultural heritages. 

Arts in the Park

Saturday, September 9
5:00-6:30 pm
Glen Providence Park Stage, State Street, Media
Rain date: Sunday, September 10

Eco Del Sur’s amazing array of musical instruments includes traditional and indigenous ones created by the Pre-Columbian civilizations more than 5,000 years ago… used to play famous Latin American songs that are now part of the world popular culture!

Bring a blanket or chair, and relax on the lawn by the historical stage for a late afternoon concert! After the performance, head into Media for dinner and shopping, just 2 blocks away on State Street. As with all of our events, this performance is free, family-friendly, and open to the public.

Thank you:

• Concert Sponsor Diego’s Cantina & Tequila Bar makes traditional peasant style food from the Puebla region of Mexico, on a wood burning grill. And it’s located just over 2 blocks from the entrance to the park!
• Concert Series Sponsor Media Recreation Board does so much for Media – including summer camp for kids, movies in Barrall Field, the Annual July 4th Celebration, and the Great Media Garage Sale Days.
• Concert Series Sponsor West End Walk is the exciting new development of townhouses along the edge of the park, by the main entrance.
• Delaware County Parks & Recreation has cared for Glen Providence Park since its creation on Halloween, 1935!
• This summer’s Arts in the Park was made possible by funding from Project Stream, a grant initiative of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts that is regionally administered by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. Additional support for Project Stream is provided by PECO.

If the weather is questionable, we will post on Facebook and on our website by noon Saturday whether we will use our Sunday rain date.

For logistics, and for information on our other summer performances, please see our 2017 Arts in the Park announcement! *Eco del Sur was originally to be the final performance in our summer series, but the Jeffrey Gaines concert, originally scheduled for August 12, was rescheduled to September 23. 

An audience of wonderfully diverse, joyful and pleasant folks streamed into Glen Providence Park on July 8th to enjoy the vintage sounds of one of the premier tribute bands in the tri-state area.

From the first unmistakable note of the generation-spanning classic Shakedown Street, the six extraordinarily talented musicians that comprise Splintered Sunlight transfixed the crowd and transported us from the “Summer of Love” through one of the most fertile eras of jam-band history, all courtesy of their incredibly accurate renditions of highlights from the Grateful Dead’s iconic catalog.

The audience response to the era-defining classics Bertha, China Cat Sunflower, I Know You Rider, Truckin’ and Friend of the Devil attested to the durability of the Grateful Dead’s sounds and sentiments that distilled a generation’s emotional response to the times. The words and music continue to speak to a wide age demographic – from those who grew up with the Dead soundtrack as it developed to the grandchildren of those of the era.

The Glen Providence Park historic stage once again proved its integrity and timeless essence when a member of this respected band that plays some of the best rock venues in the area commented, “This is such an awesome place. It’s beautiful. There’s not a bad seat in the house”.

Inside the arc of picnic tables that describes the Park’s version of the Parquet Circle, the energetic and inspired young, old and in-between were able to jump and jive with barefoot abandon on the grass within just a few up-close-and-personal feet of the performers. Others soaked up the “60’s” ambience while scattered across the hillside on their portable chairs and picnic blankets, with the youngest “DeadHeads” lounging in strollers and encased in carriers of all description.

With the weather at its best, the setting idyllic and the music sweet and clear throughout the glen, those fortunate enough to visit Delaware County’s First Park at showtime on July 8th realized this evening was definitely not simply One More Saturday Night!

Many thanks to all who made this concert possible: Delaware County Parks & Recreation, a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Concert Series Sponsors Media Recreation Board and West End Walk, Concert Sponsor Sterling Pig Brewery, our volunteer Concert Committee, Marcia Tate for her artful decoration of the stage, the hundreds of people who attended, and of course Splintered Sunlight!

This summer’s Arts in the Park was made possible by funding from Project Stream, a grant initiative of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts that is regionally administered by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. Additional support for Project Stream is provided by PECO.

Click on any photo for a closer look, or scroll through to see what it was like!

Photos by George Tate