Outta’ Sight: Flagler Auditorium Celebrates Community with Covid-Conscious Concert Series

The Cherry Drops songs “Outta’ Sight” and “Far Out” were each named by Van Zandt as the “Coolest Song in The World This Week” and featured on Little Steven’s Underground Garage, his syndicated radio show which airs on SiriusXM channel 21 and elsewhere. Those songs and other Cherry Drops chestnuts continue to play on the channel.

For Shank and his crew, the gods of music are the purveyors of the bubblegum, garage rock and power pop of the 1960s and ’70s: the Archies, the Monkees, Badfinger, the Raspberries, Cheap Trick and others. The original songs on such Cherry Drops albums as “Good to the Last Drop,” “Life Is a Bowl of Cherry Drops” and “Everything’s Groovy” tap into those vibes without plagiarizing or succumbing to rank nostalgia.

Shank, who will be performing for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown, will be joined by whom he affectionately calls “a few of my rock ’n’ roll buddies I pulled in to play with us” — fellow area resident Steve Boone, a founding member of the Lovin’ Spoonful, and Mark Dawson of the Grassroots.

The Feb. 27 show will be Flagler Auditorium’s second in its Community Celebration Series, a multi-artist, multi-media string of spring performances that lives up to its title. Along with concerts by mostly area music artists, each event will include presentations and activities by area civic and cultural groups such as the Flagler County Historical Society, and the Palm Coast Cruisers with their car show.

The Cherry Drops will headline a show themed “A Tribute to Flagler Beach,” with opening artist Capt. Nick, a singer-guitarist whose laid-back songs reflect the beach lifestyle and especially the places and lore of Flagler Beach. Matanzas Blue Steel, a Matanzas High School steel band whose roots go back to 2005, will perform outdoors from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The Flagler Beach Photography Club also will have a display outdoors. The Flagler Beach Historical Museum will be showcased onstage.

Boone, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the bassist for the Lovin’ Spoonful, will join the Cherry Drops for two songs: “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” the Lovin’ Spoonful hit which Boone and the Cherry Drops covered for the latter’s “Good to the Last Drop” album; and “Sweet Lovin’,” a tribute to the Lovin’ Spoonful which Boone and the Drops recorded on the latter’s “Life Is a Bowl of Cherry Drops” album.




The Cherry Drops’ concert will summon a ’60s vibe not only sonically but also visually on the auditorium’s giant video screen at the back of its stage.

“You’ll see us in our videos and footage from other shows,” Shank says. “Plus you’ll see pop-culture things like two go-go girls in cages, lava lamps, Woodstock, models walking the runway, Jimi Hendrix, all kinds of psychedelic swirls and twirls. It’ll bring back that whole Austin Powers-y kind of vibe.”

Shank knows that onstage he and his band will be treated to an unusual vibe “from our perspective as we are looking out there,” he says. “When you are a musician standing on stage, you feed off energy from the audience.” But that energy will be very different with a masked and socially-distanced crowd.

“The auditorium will have safety protocols, which is a wonderful thing – I’m so glad they do,” Shank says. “There’s a thousand seats. They are doing two seats, six seats empty, two seats, six seats empty, two seats, and then every other row. The maximum will be 250 people.

“But I’m just glad that at least some things are opening. The optimistic side is gosh, it’s just great to be able to play out live again. I’ll play anything. We’ve played the Star Community Bar in Atlanta. We’ve played dives in Los Angeles where we were afraid to even park our cars. But the point is music – you just love to perform. You want to make magic. I’m happy to be back playing, that things are loosening up a little bit so that people are taking opportunities, like Flagler Auditorium, to try to bring music back to life in the midst of everything we’ve been going through over this last year. I feel honored to do that. Kudos to Flagler Auditorium.”

When Amelia Fulmer became the director of Flagler Auditorium in June 2019, after 16 years as choral director, International Baccalaureate music instructor and guitar instructor at Flagler-Palm Coast High school, she realized “I didn’t know our community as well as I should,” she says.

So Fulmer, who indeed had spent time bridging the community with the arts in Flagler County schools as its arts outreach coordinator, took to the road. She met with area civic groups, cultural organizations and others to discover their interests and needs, and yes she had informational Flagler Auditorium flyers in hand.

Now, through Fulmer’s initiative, Flagler Auditorium is hoping to bring more community awareness to the county’s citizens through its Community Celebration Series. And yes, the Covid-19 pandemic — which a recent Stetson University workshop labeled a “singularity” that is, for the first time in recorded history, affecting every single human on the planet — is playing a role.

With detailed, precise safety protocols in place, the Community Celebration Series debuted Jan. 29 with a sold-out concert by Absolute Queen, a Tampa-based tribute band that performs the music of Freddie Mercury and company. However, sold out in these pandemic times means a socially-distanced 250 seats – one-fourth of the auditorium’s normal 1,000-seat capacity.

The show also paid tribute to Flagler schools and Flagler Technical College via videos and other activities, and a jazz band performed outdoors at the auditorium entrance prior to the main event as patrons underwent temperature checks, filled out a Covid-19 questionnaire and were reminded that mask-wearing was required indoors throughout the event.

The inhibiting economics of the pandemic came into play during the creation of the local-oriented Community Celebration Series: Few national acts are currently touring, and even if they were, the scaled-back, socially-distanced seating capacity at the auditorium, as at any performing arts venue currently, means less tickets can be sold – thus putting a dent in a venue’s bottom-line profit margin and limiting its ability to pay upper-range artists’ fees and other event production costs.

But Fulmer is quick to point out such issues weren’t the only factor, and not even the main factor, in launching the locally focused series.

“We can only sell 250 tickets for an event, so anyone can do the math,” Fulmer says. “We have lost a lot of revenue this year compared to previous years. But we are fortunate that we are directly supported by Flagler County Schools, and local and state grants. We are working with a substantially smaller budget with 250 seats – 25 percent of our regular capacity — but we wanted to move ahead and work to open the auditorium.

“Our local community needs to be celebrated. The first part of this year is focused on serving the community and bringing people together safely, and getting our students performing again safely as well.”

The auditorium, which is on the campus of Flagler-Palm Coast High School, hosted a number of student music and theater performances in December, Fulmer says. All followed safety protocols, including “It’s a Wonderful Life” staged as a radio play, with the performers masked and socially distant. Throughout its 30-year history, the auditorium has hosted concerts and theater productions by Flagler schools and area arts groups, entertainment by nationally touring acts, and various community events.

The auditorium website details the safety protocols the venue has put in place. The “Socially Distanced” entry reads: “Currently, we are only selling 250 seats in the auditorium. We can only accommodate two seats together during this time. This allows us to keep patrons six feet apart. Lobby areas will be kept clear and outside doors will be used for exiting the theater. Concessions will not be served during COVID-19 performances.”




Unavailable seats are covered with trash bags. While performers are given break times during events, intermissions are not being held and patrons may not gather in the lobby. Videos and various onstage activities will be presented during those break times. Only two people are allowed in restrooms at any one time.

The website’s “Audience Screening” section notes that audience members and participants, “including talent,” will be screened outside the theater. Temperature checks and a questionnaire regarding COVID 19 must be completed before entering the lobby area.

“We hope patrons will come early to the pre-show activities and get their safety checks completed so that we don’t have lines out to the flagpole,” Fulmer says.

The website’s “Sanitation” section notes that in December a new HVAC system – “which was due to be replaced anyway,” Fulmer says — was installed in the auditorium. The new system includes equipment developed by Global Plasma Systems, whose website says the company uses “needlepoint bipolar ionization technology” that “fights pathogens and limits the spread of viruses” – although the website makes no specific claims regarding Covid-19.

The auditorium website also notes “all areas are cleaned and sanitized often, especially high-contact surfaces. The theater is cleaned after every performance with an electrostatic sprayer.   Hand sanitizer will be made available throughout the theater. All audience members must agree to wear a face-covering as part of the terms and conditions when purchasing a ticket.”

Fulmer notes that the auditorium has modified its policy so that any patron can receive a refund if they feel uncomfortable once inside the venue.

At her own initiative, Fulmer took an online course to become certified as a “COVID-19 Compliance Officer.” Provided by Health Education Services, a Silicon Valley company which offers training courses for professional health care providers, workplace personnel, school staff and the general public, the Covid course is typically aimed at the entertainment industry, according to healtheducationservices.net: “As film, commercial, music video and photo shoots begin to open up across the country, a need has emerged for a new crew position: COVID-19 Compliance Officer (C19CO). Shoots are often places where food is shared, people work closely with one another, and social distancing is often not possible. We have designed this non-union class to inform producers, coordinators, production assistants and 1st ADs about on-set protocols related to COVID-19 as well as provide tools and resources for the new COVID-19 Compliance Officer (C19CO) position.”




Even though the circumstances of Covid remain “topsy-turvy,” as Fulmer says, she is busy planning an auditorium performance season for late 2021 and spring 2022, knowing that any and all plans may be upended.

Like Shank, she is optimistic: “We are looking forward to next season,” Fulmer says.

–Rick de Yampert for FlaglerLive

Community Celebration Series performances are at Flagler Auditorium, 5500 East Hwy. 100, Palm Coast. Tickets for each show are $32 plus $2 service fee. Patrons must buy two tickets, and only two tickets may be purchased during each transaction. Tickets are available online at flaglerauditorium.org or by calling the box office at 386-437-7547. Concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. with pre-concert entertainment at 5:30 p.m. The lineup includes:

Feb. 27 — A Tribute to Flagler Beach with the Cherry Drops, singer-guitarist Capt. Nick, Steve Boone of the Lovin’ Spoonful, and Mark Lawson of the Grass Roots. (Matanzas Blue Steel had to withdraw due to a covid matter). The Flagler Beach Photography Club also will have a display outdoors. The Flagler Beach Historical Museum will be showcased onstage.

March 13 — Stronger Together: A Salute to Women featuring a tribute to Pat Benatar and Pink by the Tampa-based band Fire & Ice. The event will honor the efforts of the Flagler County Historical Society and the Flagler County branch of the American Association of University Women to create a Women’s Voting Rights Museum. In addition to the $32 tickets, a dinner and show ticket, including a meal at High Jackers Restaurant, is $47 plus a $2 service fee.

April 10 – A tribute to Buddy Holly and Fats Domino with the Palm Coast doo-wop group One More Time, plus a car show beginning at 10 a.m. with the Palm Coast Cruisers, and presentations by the Palm Coast Historical Society.

April 23 — Jazz singer Linda Cole and Friends, featuring performances by alumni of Flagler schools’ performing arts program.