People can bring their own lunch or box lunches with a drink will be available for $6 while they last at the shows.
“It’s amazing how many people look forward to this every year. When the Summer Arts Festival ends, we get calls from people asking when Lunch on the Lawn will start and what acts are playing,” said SSO Executive Director Lou Ross.
Recent series had begun in August, and Ross said this year will break that streak by beginning in July to not conflict with the museum’s annual Art Ball later in August.
GoodVibes, a series regular, will kick things off on Friday, July 25 with a blend of smooth jazz, blues, swing and standard favorites with area musicians.
“They’ve been in about every one of our series since the beginning. It would not be Lunch on the Lawn without them,” said Ross.
A series of fresh acts to the series will follow beginning with the Gibbons String Quartet on Aug. 1. It will be the local performance debut of Jordan Millard, who is the SSO Youth Symphony’s conductor.
On Aug. 8 as something of a warmup act for the fourth annual Springfield Jazz and Blues Festival kicking off later that day will be the Keigo Hirakawa Quartet. Pianist Hirakawa is a mainstay in the midwest and New York jazz circuits and brings along a band of experienced musicians.
Ross said there are other connections as Hirakawa’s wife is a SSO musician and their kids are in the SSO youth programs.
Closing out the 2025 series on Aug. 15 is Rolando & Afro-Rican Ensemble, blending fusion, jazz and afrobeat into a genre-defying sound. The Ensemble invites the audience on an exhilarating musical journey that transcends borders and genres.
Lunch on the Lawn is fit for the whole family or a stop during the workday, Ross said. He credits several local sponsors and partial funding by the Ohio Arts Council and Culture Works for keeping it going.
In the case of rain, concerts will be moved indoors. As an added incentive, admission to Museum of Art’s exhibits is free to event patrons after each concert.
“This is a nice way for people to spend a day to experience the quality performing and visual arts we have in Springfield,” said Ross.
For more information, call 937-325-8100 or go to www.springfieldsym.org.
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