By Andie Foley
For the Salisbury Post

Luck isn’t a new concept for the folks behind Salisbury Symphony’s Pops at the Post concert. In fact, fortune seemed to be on the side of event planners since that very first concert in 2005.

It started as the Salisbury Post’s gift to the community as the paper celebrated its 100th anniversary. Cathy Wilkerson, then the paper’s publisher, wanted to celebrate the centennial with a symphony performance.

Conductor David Hagy was not so easily convinced.

“I was reluctant because … you cannot do an outdoor concert unless it’s entirely amplified, … it’s entirely covered, safe and there’s a space for an audience.”

Accordingly, logistics required ingenuity.

This is where fate would come into play. While meeting with Wilkerson and discussing a tentative location in the Wrenn House parking lot, Wilkerson, Hagy, and executive director Linda Jones exited through the Salisbury Post loading dock to scope out locations.

“We’re walking and talking away as we go and I’m going ‘wait a minute!’ I was hearing this sound back at me,” Hagy said. Jones remembers the moment with a laugh.

“Musicians don’t hear like we hear. … While we are walking and talking through the loading dock, David is hearing the acoustics of it,” she said.

That first symphony orchestra performance would then take place in the Post’s loading dock area, which functioned as a surprisingly functional, improvised band shell.  The concert was an instant hit — an event many people wanted to see repeated.

Now on its 13th year, Pops at the Post has become an annual community event, making the move into full 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2012. Businesses and philanthropists have given generously to support the concert, and donations are tax-deductible.

How to give

Volunteers from the Salisbury Civitan Club will pass the hat to collect donations from concert-goers Saturday.

Donations can be sent to Pops at the Post, P.O. Box 4639, Salisbury, NC 28145. Make checks payable to Pops at the post.

For more information about Pops at the Post and how to support the concert:

• www.popsatthepost.org
• www.facebook.com/PopsatthePost