ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The yearly summer concert series will kick off at 7 p.m. Thursday at the city’s amphitheater and the public is invited to bring some deck chairs and enjoy the music.

Recreation Director Eric Gay said an impressive lineup awaits.

“A Jimmy Buffett tribute band, Parrots of the Caribbean. The mayor’s seen them play. We’re thrilled to have them. We’re kind of kicking off Memorial Day weekend,” he said. “We’ll have a couple food trucks here, drinks for people.”

He said Whiteside Chevrolet Buick GMC is the sponsor for that night.

“We’re thrilled for the entire season. We have a great lineup this year. We’re going to be using the amphitheater again. We’re going to be using the bike trail gazebo for the acoustic nights like we did last year,” he said.

Other sessions include:

∫ From 7-9 p.m. June 8 Still Kickin’ will play, sponsored by a private donor;

∫ 7:30-9 p.m. June 16 Jason Treuman will play at the Bike Trail Gazebo;

∫ 9-7 p.m. June 22 Tongue ‘n’ Cheek will be sponsored by WesBanco and play at the amphitheater;

∫ 7:30-9 p.m. June 23 Daniel Welsh will play at the gazebo;

∫ 4 p.m. to dark July 1 will be Community Day at the amphitheater, sponsored by Riesbeck’s Food Market and Unified Bank, Taylor Jo Porter and Copper Creek Band and Jutebox will play;

∫ 7-9 p.m. July 13 Aftermath will play at the amphitheater, sponsored by Belmont County Tourism;

∫ 7:30-9 p.m. July 21 Josh Sokoloski will play at the gazebo;

∫ 4-10 p.m. July 29 will be the Keep it Cool summer festival sponsored by Belmont Savings Bank, when an Earth, Wind and Fire tribute band will play;

7:30-9 p.m. Aug. 11 The Hooch will play at the Gazebo;

7-9 p.m. Aug. 16 will be the back-to-school kickoff at the amphitheater;

4-10 p.m. Sept. 9 will be the Rhythm and Brews Fall Fest at the amphitheater, sponsored by Belmont Savings Bank and Magistro Insurance, with MSM, Logan Wojcik and Trailer Park Ninjas playing.

Gay said the summer concerts offer a wide variety of different genres.

“We have something set up every week. We have Jimmy Buffett to kick it off this Thursday. We have a country night, a rock and roll night, our Community Day is obviously a big day for us, a ’60s, ’70s night,” he said. “We just want to make it a big, family-friendly atmosphere.

“It’s a free concert for people to get into and just a really nice thing that we can offer that. We want to thank all the sponsors that helped us out with this, but really excited about the summer,” Gay said.

He also pointed out facility improvements, such as the amphitheater’s new lighting.

“Last year was my first year with the concert series. Everything was great. I just always like to keep improving things around here. Talking to some of the performers up there, one of the things they said would really help would be some stage lighting, so we were thrilled that Gulfport Energy purchased those lights for us and they are installed right now. They do some pretty cool things with different colors. They move, and I think they’ll just enhance that whole stage area.”

He said these additions make for a more attractive venue for concerts and other events.

“We just really want to keep utilizing that area. We’re getting more and more rentals down there as well. We have some bridal showers down there, baby showers, birthday parties, family reunions, especially during the four to five months you can be outside. We want to have that place as nice as possible for the people who want to rent it and want to use it.”

The complete schedule of events can be found on the recreation department’s website at stcrecdept.recdesk.com, the city website at stclairsville.com or by calling the rec center at 740-695-2037.