Celebrate Bedford hopes ticket sales rise

‘‍Hotel California, the Original Eagles Tribute Show’ is the headliner at Celebrate Bedford on June 28. Organizers are urging the public to buy tickets to the show.

TEMPERANCE — Organizers of the upcoming Celebrate Bedford don’t have a “peaceful easy feeling” over weak ticket sales to the festival’s big concert, which is to feature “Hotel California, the Original Eagles Tribute Show” on June 28.

The combined cost of the band and separately hired stage, sound, and lighting technicians is almost $10,000. “We have 5,000 tickets to sell, and not even 1,000 have been sold yet,” Cherie Reed, Celebrate Bedford’‍s head organizer, said last week.

“I’m exhorting people to buy tickets and come out and enjoy the show,” she said. “This band is excellent. They sound like the real thing. My husband and I are big concert-goers, and we’‍ve heard them twice. That’s why I thought they’‍d be good for Celebrate Bedford. We made it affordable.”

Sally Dunn, another organizer, agreed: “The band is wonderful. The thing I’m most worried about is ticket sales.”

The concert is set for 7:30 p.m. in Bedford Community Stadium, with gates opening an hour earlier. Ticket prices are $15 for lawn seating and $10 for bleachers. Tickets can be purchased online at bedford.k12.mi.us/​communityeducation or at DaCapo, the Bedford Branch Library, Flick’s Package Liquor, Lambertville Orthodontics, Krieger Realty, Culture Clash Records, and Bedford Community Education.

Ms. Reed said the group hopes to have enough money left over to cover the cost of a memory tree sculpture planned for Bedford High School to memorialize students and graduates who have died.

As for the daylong festival, it was conceived as “something positive for the community,” said Ms. Reed, who runs the Bedford Public Schools’‍ adult education program. “We’ve been in the doldrums with the bad economy, losing two school buildings, and losing businesses, residents, and students. But people here tend to pull together, and this is something to celebrate.”

The schedule for Celebrate Bedford includes a parking lot sale at the high school, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with vendors selling such items as used housewares and clothes.

At 9 a.m. is the Splash of Color Run at Indian Creek Park, sponsored by the Bedford Business Association, with colored cornstarch thrown on the runners, and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., the Bedford Branch Library will have art on display outside, along with a craft show, music, and a historical presentation.

The parade will include the high school marching band and starts at noon at the district administration building, 1623 W. Sterns Rd. Other entertainment and events will be on the north side of the high school, including music by The Combo at 2 p.m.; Sam DeArmond at 3:30 p.m., and Matt Kerekes at 5 p.m.

Contact Carl Ryan at: carlryan@theblade.com or 419-724-6095.