Music Alley gets downtown jumping

By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

Beautiful weather, live music and a chance to celebrate brought out a crowd to downtown Mansfield on Saturday for the annual Music Alley festival.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, attendance was limited to 1,500 people at one time with attendees coming and going throughout the six-hour festival.

Rising country music star Randall King wrapped up the day, drawing a crowd at the Main Stage for the finale, while the All Funk Radio Show got things rocking earlier in the evening. The Rising Phoenix Lion Dance Association brought the party, prowling up and down Main Street, interacting with attendees.

“It was an amazing day,” said Ann Beck, marketing and communications manager for Mansfield Parks & Recreation. “Events are always hard to put together with all the moving pieces but this was our first one of the year under the ‘new normal’ of 2020 so it came with an entirely different set of factors to consider. Thankfully we have an awesome team and a great partnership with the Commission for the Arts so we were able to bring the fun and music back to historic downtown while keeping everyone safe and healthy.

“While still a free event, we had capacity limits per the fire department so we required free tickets and tracked entries and exits to keep the headcount under a safe limit but still allowed people to come in later as early visitors left,” she said. “We also added sanitizers throughout and required masks to enter, and were very pleased with how cooperative everyone was. We had no issues, only lots of really happy people who were excited for a chance to get outside and enjoy the beautiful fall weather and each other. It was nice to see that even though things are different, we can still find a way to celebrate together safely.”

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