Text, Photos and Video
By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Downtown Warsaw was busy on Friday, June 21, with a concert, Third Friday and more.

The Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department’s free Rockin’ for Riley concert was held at Central Park, with ’90s alternative rock band Everclear the headliner. Proceeds from freewill donations were to benefit the Kosciusko County Riley Kids Fund, which helps local families whose kids are Riley Hospital for Children patients.

Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department Superintendent Larry Plummer estimated there were “around 5,000” people at the concert.

“I think it’s a good community event. We’ve got all age groups,” he said. “It’s just a great thing for the community.”

Plummer noted the hot temperature didn’t seem to affect turnout. The department did have a cooling section for relief from the heat.

“It was a hot day today, but look at the crowd,” Plummer added. “They’ll come out whether it’s hot or cold. It doesn’t matter. I mean it’s just a good time and a good thing and a good draw for the downtown and essential for our parks system.”

Bike Night

Main Street Warsaw’s Third Friday’s focus was Bike Night, with more than 125 motorcycles displayed downtown.

American Bikers Aimed Toward Education had a course set up for kids to experience riding mini motorcycles.

Representative for the Kosciusko County chapter of ABATE Allan Ross said he hoped kids “(fell) in love with the bikes” through going through the course.

Ross started riding young himself at age 7.

He said anyone 18 and older is welcome to come to Kosciusko County ABATE meetings, regardless of whether they own or ride a motorcycle. Those are 3:30 p.m. the first Saturday of each month at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1126 in Warsaw.

Circus Event

In conjunction with Third Friday, the Kosciusko County Historical Society had a circus event at the Old Jail Museum.

That was in honor of the museum’s current special exhibit featuring Indiana circus artifacts owned by KCHS Co-Director Greg Steffe.

People could view two calliopes and enjoy circus food, with face painting also offered.

Steffe noted the KCHS had the event at the same time as Third Friday “because you’ve kind of got a … crowd downtown already, which the object of doing any of these open houses is to bring more people through the door and make them aware of what we have here.”

He said many people don’t know about the museum.

“We just want to expose people to it and for them to realize what a rich circus history Indiana has,” said Steffe of the exhibit. “Like I told them at the beginning, virtually every major circus in the United States came from Indiana with the exception of Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey. (Indiana) was their winter home whether it was Peru, West Baden Springs, Rochester, Muncie, Bloomington, all of them were winter quarter cities. Of course, Peru was known as the circus capital of the world.”

People may stop by the museum from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.

“We also operate the Pound Store in Oswego, June through September. That’s open on Sunday afternoons from 1-4 p.m.,” said Steffe.

KCHS Board Member and Volunteer Patsy See added the museum has an extensive genealogy collection, noting work was being done to digitize obituaries.