Prospect Sound Bites brings in thousands for weekly concerts

The summer season is the time for being outdoors and enjoying good music, while being surrounded by friends and good food. Prospect Sound Bites brings all those elements together in its Monday night concert series.

Starting Memorial Day and going through Labor Day, the summer concert series—which is in its sixth year—is produced by Merry Ann Webb, who also owns The Rib House with her husband Tracy, in Prospect New Town.

Webb mentioned there are a myriad of elements that make Sound Bites unique and draw thousands of concert goers to Bruns Park every Monday.

“The beautiful Bruns Park setting in Prospect, the eclectic variety of bands, the high quality food vendors and brewers and the faithful audience that stays with us, rain or shine, all make Prospect Sound Bites an event not-to-be-missed,” Webb said. “Our generous sponsors make it possible for us to provide these fantastic concerts. “Unique” truly epitomizes Prospect Sound Bites.”

Webb believes this year’s concert series is the best they’ve had due to its exciting band line up, good food and some new additions. The concert series has added new beers from local breweries, which will go toward the Longmont Community Foundation.

“This year’s newest addition is the Prospect Sound Bites Beer Garden featuring beers from Wibby Brewing and Oskar Blues,” Webb explained. “We are proud that the profits from the beer garden will ultimately help improve life in the St. Vrain Valley by benefiting the Longmont Community Foundation.”

The Longmont Community Foundation, which began in 1994, was created to improve life in the St. Vrain Valley through philanthropy and leadership. According to the nonprofit’s website, it one day hopes that “all people of the St. Vrain Valley lead independent, generous, and creative lives.”

Webb has been involved in Prospect Sound Bites since the beginning, although it didn’t always have that name. She said as the audience grew they were able to include more bands and provide a wider variety of food vendors.

“Edward Vanegas and I started Prospect Eats with a keg of beer and two food trucks,” Webb explained. “The very first band we put on stage was the Jack Hadley Band, paid for by The Rib House. As our audience has grown to an average of 2,500 people, we’ve included a wider variety of bands and added to our line up of high quality food vendors. This awesome event became known as Prospect Sound Bites in February of 2015.”

Putting on this big of an event isn’t Webb’s full time job, as she still has to run The Rib House.

“It is just like having a full-time job in addition to running a full time restaurant,” Webb said. “I have to admit, I work as many hours at Sound Bites as at The Rib House. Before this year’s event even started, I had probably invested 2,000 hours in vetting and signing bands, soliciting funds from our generous sponsors, seeking out and scheduling a variety of food trucks and handling the many administrative details that go along with an event of this size.”

The free event, which starts selling food at 5 p.m. on Mondays, aims to have a variety of bands play every week. Webb said bands are picked on their past performance or just by chance, but she wants to make sure they provide a good atmosphere for the audience.

“Selection is based on past performance, contact by the bands and happenstance,” Webb said of the bands. “I like to see bands that can hold an audience’s attention for two hours and even leave them wanting more.”

Additionally, bands will contact her. Webb said she also stumbles across bands that end up playing at Sound Bites, which happened to her recently.

“As Prospect Sound Bites has grown, a greater number of bands have been contacting me directly about playing,” she explained. “I also might just happen to see a band that I like while I’m out. I’ve been to the St. Julian to see a band that I’ve decided to add to the 2017 line-up. Ultimately, I like to have bands with a good reputation and following; drawing around 2,000 people.”

Along with selecting the right bands, Webb also has to make sure she selects the best food trucks that concert goers will like. Webb said selecting food trucks is “truly a combination of attributes: the menu, variety, price point, appearance of the truck/trailer and cleanliness.”

Even though it’s a lot of work every week and even when the concerts are over, Webb said it’s all worth it to see the smile on people’s faces as they go home after a good experience.

“Prospect Sound Bites is like planning a party for 2,000 - 3,000 people every Monday night,” Webb said. “There’s no better satisfaction than seeing your party guests enjoying themselves and leaving with smiles on their faces after a successful event!”

Sound Bites has five concerts remaining - Johanna Winkel on Aug. 8, Hot Tomatoes on August 15, Tunisia Band on August 22, Pikzil on Aug. 29 and Dotsero on Sept. 5. Concerts are every Monday night, beginning at 5:30 p.m. until 8 p.m.