Downtown Marble Falls’s newest music venue: Harmony Park
Harmony Park in downtown Marble Falls will include musical instruments that can be played by anyone as they spend time around Main Street. Rendering courtesy of city of Marble Falls
STAFF WRITER JARED FIELDS
Steve Reitz remembers a family trip to Silverton, Colorado, because of one of the city’s downtown features: a musical instrument installation.
“From 2 years old to 100, everyone hit (one of those instruments) once or twice,” said Reitz, the Marble Falls Economic Development Corp. board president. “It was a real asset for that location downtown.”
Now, with proposed funding to be split between the EDC and the Hotel Occupancy Tax reserve fund, the same feature could be in downtown Marble Falls later this spring.
Harmony Park — to be located on Main Street next to the new downtown public restroom — will have five instruments with attached mallets, letting people make their own music with while spending time downtown.
“What we’re looking for is you’ve got to have points of interest, and that’s a great point of interest for people of all ages,” said Marble Falls City Manager Mike Hodge.
Funding for the park was approved during separate EDC and HOT committee meetings Feb. 6 and Feb. 7, respectively, at $20,000 each. The projected cost is just over $44,000, but Hodge said he does not expect the final total to be that high.
The funds for the project must first be approved by Marble Falls City Council during its next regular meeting Feb. 19. Then, the instruments can be ordered.
Marble Falls Downtown Coordinator Erin Burks said the instruments take six to eight weeks for delivery and should be installed by the city later this spring.
“I think it’s super fun and super unique,” Burks said.
After doing research on similar parks, Burks discovered that the oldest in the country — in Utah — has instruments that have been in place for more than 30 years.
Harmony Park will include contrabass chimes, a xylophone-like merry, two other chimes instruments — a manta ray and a swirl — and lilypad cymbals. Along with the instruments, the park will have landscaping and upgraded lighting, which will include color-changing LED lights.
4 thoughts on “Downtown Marble Falls’s newest music venue: Harmony Park”
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Great job, Marble Falls, EDC, City Council and Mayor!! Our little town is growing so fast, some of us miss out on the old days of no traffic. But the reality is, MF is becoming a tourist destination. And you’re making this worthwhile to residents as well as business-owners. Keep up your good foresight and good works. All of us can enjoy these improvements.
The idea about this is to influence musical instruments and accessibility to all from toddler to seniors. These people are also going to be local people whose expanded interest in music will make them more sensitive to issues like animal shelters and the need to be not only responsible pet owners who spay and neuter their animals but who also believe in fair and humane treatment for all community animals. It just makes sense to have a more empathetic and sympathetic populace. This is not a “tourist attraction” anymore than a concert hall would be.
I agree, an animal shelter would be a much better idea for the city of Marble Falls.
Such a great idea for the town to have something like this, but does anyone know where the animal shelter is in Marble Falls?
I would say, upgrading that facility would be better for the town. Most people don’t even know it exists. A tiny building hidden back toward Meadowlakes. Hopefully Marble Falls Animal Control has a contract with HIghland Lakes S.P.C.A. so any unclaimed strays have a chance of being adopted. Marble Falls needs to step up first for something like this, rather than giant wind chimes visitors can play with downtown…..