Hailed as “the official start to summer” and “a seasonal rite,” the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s Concerts in the Garden is a cherished Fort Worth tradition. Making its triumphant return after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, Concerts in the Garden is back. With 30 years of spectacular music-making to look back on, each incarnation of the Fort Worth Symphony’s annual Concerts in the Garden only gets better. This critically acclaimed festival is one of those truly unique traditions that makes Fort Worth the destination city that it is and provides nearly 35,000 listeners a year with unforgettable memories of musical fun in the sun. This three-week summer festival was created by the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra and Music Director John Giordano with help of the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, the Fort Worth Botanical Society, and the City of Fort Worth Parks and Community Services Department. Concerts in the Garden has grown into a community favorite summer experience that guarantees spectacular shows and a little something for everyone. In the weeks leading up to the festival, a veritable army of Fort Worth Symphony staff, crew, and volunteers work to transform the North and South Vistas of the Botanic Garden into the famous concert venue that you see each year. Families come from miles around to fill the grassy expanse on concert nights, touting picnic baskets and blankets, coolers, and lawn chairs to settle in and stake their claim on the lawn each evening to kick back and enjoy the music. This year is a wonderful mashup of old and new, with plenty of familiar acts returning to headline at the Garden along with several new acts. Concerts like The Music of Pink Floyd and the July 4th Celebration are perennial favorites, and while fireworks are a guarantee at every show, the performances of “Star Wars and Beyond” include a must-see laser light spectacular!
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Concerts in the Garden is just one of the many opportunities to hear the FWSO outside of Bass Performance Hall. The orchestra’s programs for families and children in local churches, schools, and elsewhere reach more than 60,000 in a typical year, and many also hear the orchestra through various collaborations with organizations like the Fort Worth Opera and The Cliburn.
