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23rd Annual Pops In the Park Slated for Labor Day Sunday |
Due to inclement weather forecasts, Pops in the Park has been cancelled for 2002.
WRAL-TV will once again host the 23rd annual Pops in the Park concert, a Triangle tradition over the Labor Day weekend. The North Carolina Symphony concert will begin at 6:30pm on Sunday, September 1, 2002, on the campus of Meredith College in Raleigh.
An estimated 40,000 will attend the event, the kick-off of the North Carolina Symphony’s 2002-20003 season. The free outdoor concert and fireworks display benefits the Triangle United Way annual giving campaign.
Gates will open at 4:00pm with a variety of family activities. Prizes will be awarded and parents can take their children to the Identi-i-kid program. WRAL-TV personalities will be on hand to sign autographs. Food and beverage will be available, and concert-goers are welcome to bring picnics, blankets and lawn chairs. Pets and alcohol are not allowed.
WRAL-TV Anchor Bill Leslie will emcee the event, and NC Symphony Associate Conductor and Interim Artistic Planning Advisor William Henry Curry and Assistant Conductor Jeffrey Pollock will conduct. The concert will include works by Edward Elgar, Richard Rogers, and the traditional playing of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture will accompany the fireworks display. Wide As The Skies, a work commissioned for the First Flight Centennial from Symphony Composer-in-Residence Nathaniel Stookey, will premiere at the event.
Thanks to sponsorship from GlaxoSmithKline and IBM, the concert will air on WRAL-TV on Monday, September 2, at 7:00pm. WUNC-TV will re-air the broadcast on Sunday, September 8, at 6:00pm.
This year’s event sponsors include Applebee’s, Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep, KFC, Lexus, Nature Conservancy, Skin and Cosmetic Solutions, Shoe Carnival, Toyota of Durham, Triangle Town Center, Disney’s Aida and WA Home. WRAL-TV organizes the event and produces the television program along with UNC-TV. The North Carolina Symphony donates its services to the people of the Triangle, and Meredith College provides the site.
Rain date for the event is Monday, September 2.
