The lunch hour on Thursdays is about to get a little more exciting in downtown London.
RBC Place London, formerly the London Convention Centre, has teamed up with the London Arts Council and London Music Office to offer a new ten date, free summer concert series.
Dubbed Thursday Tune Ups, the outdoor music spectacles will take place on RBC Place London's King Street patio every Thursday starting this week and continue until the end of August. The one-hour events will feature food trucks and visual artists, in addition to live music from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
"One of our strategic mandates is to add to the vibrancy of downtown so we thought this is a perfect way for us to be able to do that," said Lori Da Silva, general manager of RBC Place London. "With the construction on Dundas we thought the more we can do to get people to come out of their offices, come downtown and spend a bit more time here would be great and hopefully once they are here they will also support some of the other businesses in the community."
The idea to host the summer concert series comes after the success of Masterpiece London, a three-day live street art festival held in the same spot last June.
"We brought in graffiti artists from across the province and from Quebec and had such a good time doing it we wanted to do something again, we wanted to reach out," said Da Silva. "The summer months are a little bit quieter for us so we have an opportunity to have some space to do some different things."
The food trucks will be parked in the north end of the municipal parking lot on the east side of the building to ensure they do not block the King Street bike lane. The first three acts to be announced in the concert series are Leanne Mayer & The Renegades this Thursday, Byron Sanchez Cuarteto July 4, and The Pairs July 11. The full schedule of performers will be revealed in the coming weeks.
"We are working with some of the local groups and also trying to tap into some of the festivals that are coming up," said Da Silva. "We are just working out some of the final details with Sunfest and Home County, they kick off Thursday nights so we thought it was a great opportunity to have one of their featured artists come over on a Thursday at lunch."
In the event of rain, the free festivities will be moved inside RBC Place London, reassured Da Silva.
