Our Town Seward: Historic Bandshell & Community Band

By: Lance Schwartz - Email

Updated: Wed 4:25 PM, Aug 15, 2012

The list is pretty short of Nebraska town's that can boast of a community band that has stood the test of time and lasted for 125 years. Seward is at the top of that list. And when you have a great band, you need a great venue for that band to perform. Fortunately, they have that too.

The Seward Bandshell was built in 1934 and there's a special place in Mel Bolte's heart for this historic landmark, "Some people call it one of the crown jewels in the City of Seward especially with the history we've shared and the closeness to the downtown square."

Community leaders have taken pride in preserving this historic landmark throughout the years. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the bandshell in 2009, the original wooden benches were replaced with much more durable benches.

The benches will see a lot of action this summer, "We're going to have four weddings here this summer, plus 12 band concerts on Sunday nights."

And Mel is proud to say that he'll be playing the trumpet in each of those 12 concerts. He's been a member of the community band since 1946.

And the band has quite a history around here. They've been together for 125 years and they've been performing at the bandshell for the past 78 years.

At 1:00 pm on the 4th of July, the Community Band will be celebrating their 125th anniversary with a program entitled "Salute to Sousa."

If you don't catch the band on the 4th, you can come listen to them play at the bandshell each Sunday night until early August.

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