An outdoor concert to benefit the DubHub, Dublin’s community center, is scheduled for Friday, July 31 behind the Dublin Community Church. Peterborough folk and Americana singer/songwriter Wendy Keith is scheduled to perform, and each ticket entitles an attendee to a personal pizza by Hancock’s Blackfire Farm.
The DubHub lost all its income since it closed its building in March, program coordinator Volkert Volkersz said, and the funds raised at the concert will help them keep the organization running. “We like to think of ourselves as the hub of the community, but right now it’s hard to be the hub,” he said, after they closed the building to the public due to COVID-19 concerns. “Basically our income is down to zero,” Volkersz said, unable to collect rent and donations from the activity classes, receptions, parties, dinners, and breakfast meetings it usually hosts.
“I’m very much looking forward to playing live for an audience, and putting some good energy into raising money for the DubHub,” Keith said on Monday. She’s been gardening, kayaking and bicycling since she and her band played a sold-out concert in Peterborough to promote her new CD, “It’s About Time,” at the end of February, right before opportunities for live music shuttered nationwide. “It came out ‘just in time,’” Keith said. Although her band members were unable to make the concert for the DubHub, Keith said she hand-selected a surprise cast of local musicians to back her up at the show. She cited the DubHub’s support of live music through concerts and open stage events, and the region’s past and present enthusiasm for folk music. “People around here love folk music,” she said. “It was one of the reasons I moved here in ‘78.”
Keith has performed for the DubHub in the past and was one of the first artists Volkersz saw when he moved to the region. “She has a wonderful voice,” he said, and a faithful local following. Her CD will be on sale at the show.
The concert fundraiser seemed ready for rollout after several successful socially distant outdoor events, Volkersz said. The DubHub has distributed takeout community lunches once a month since May. At the latest one, about 15 people stayed to eat their lunches on site while Volkersz and two others played music and everybody was able to maintain appropriate protocol for reducing the potential spread of COVID-19, he said. The DubHub’s outdoor open stage at the end of June served as a trial run of an event in the space behind the Community Church. “There were masks and [attendees] respected others’ space,” Volkersz said, and the sloping garden sanctuary behind the carriage sheds provided ample space for people to spread out.
The DubHub traditionally gives Dublin residents a place to gather, and makes an effort to accommodate upper and lower income residents, Volkersz said. The organization’s monthly community forums are focused on helping residents learn more about Dublin through discussions about town government, its history, family histories, and visits to the Dublin School observatory, he said. Volkersz believes one reason Dublin has maintained low numbers of COVID-19 cases is the DubHub’s early action. A member’s daughter was one of the first people in the state to contract COVID-19, he said, and the center was early in offering free face masks. “Our rack would be empty every day,” he said. The Board is being “extra cautious” while considering reopening the building in person, he said, and he suspects they would think seriously about moving events indoors by October. The DubHub has scheduled additional open stage and song circle events and a chicken barbecue for the end of August.
The grounds open at 5 p.m. on July 31 and music starts at 6. The concert will be held the next day if it rains. Tickets are $25 apiece and can be purchased at pizza-and-tunes-on-the-hill.eventbrite.com or by emailing info@dublincommunitycenter.org. Attendees are asked to bring a blanket or lawn chairs, wear a face mask, and maintain socially distant precautions. Parking is available behind Dublin Town Hall and at Yankee Publishing. Space is limited to 40 attendees.