Concerts in the Plaza returns to downtown St. Augustine

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Grab the blankets, lawn chairs, and your family because St. Augustine’s popular free summer concert series returns to the Plaza de la Constitution in downtown St. Augustine Thursday.

The opener Thursday night is the Ancient City Slickers, which is the first in the concert series lineup to bring live music back to downtown.

Kayla Douglas is a St. Augustine native who has been performing with the Ancient City Slickers for over 20 years.

Douglas said their music is a mixture of country, blues, and folk music.

Last year the band didn’t get the chance to play in front of a live audience when Concerts in the Plaza was canceled because of COVID-19.

For many artists, it was a struggle with everything on lockdown and venues shut down.

Fortunately for Douglas, her band members didn’t rely solely on performing for their livelihoods.

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“I have an antique shop over on the island and chuck works at Flagler Hospital and Russ has rental houses he repairs,” Douglas said.

And with restrictions easing and the city returning to normal, the city of St. Augustine told me the concert series will even help out local businesses still reeling from COVID-19.

“What we’re hoping for is that our residents will come downtown. Maybe pick up some to-go dinner and come sit down in the plaza, put down your blanket and just sit down and enjoy,” Melissa Wissel, communication director for the City of St. Augustine, said.

Douglas has been waiting for this moment for over a year.

“I absolutely adore our people who listen to us and they’ll sing along. They’ll sing along and they’ll dance in front of the stage and we just have a really good time with it,” she said.

The performances happen every Thursday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. during summer.

For a full list of the bands playing you can click HERE.

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