Great Park Board Adopts Themes for Preview Park Summer

“Festival of Flight” to Launch Summer Activities

APRIL 17, 2008 – IRVINE, California – The Orange County Great Park Corporation Board today approved the themes and programs for the 2008 outdoor performing arts and cultural event series that will kick-off the opening of the 27.5-acre Preview Park. The first community event, “Festival of Flight,” debuts the summer programs beginning July 12, 2008. The event will mark the Great Park’s third anniversary with special exhibits, activities and performances and officially opens the Preview Park. A series of programs will take place between July and October and will include night flights on the Great Park Balloon, musical and dance performances, a homecoming for El Toro veterans and special events for children and teens.

“We are excited to see the many wonderful Great Park programs set for this summer and fall,” said Larry Agran, Chair of the Orange County Great Park Corporation. “These events truly make the Great Park a destination that will bring people together to celebrate shared experiences in public spaces.”

The Preview Park will be the first full-use public facility within the Great Park and will be developed over the next 18 to 24 months. It will feature a wide variety of visitor experiences including food service, aircraft exhibits, revised landscape, performance spaces, arts and education programs. All of these activities will be open to the public free of charge.

The Board also recommended that the Irvine City Council authorize the Great Park Corporation to enter into an agreement with the Irvine Barclay Theatre to secure talent and provide production assistance for the Preview Park Summer.

Preview Park Summer events will include:
July 12: Festival of Flight (Preview Park)
Exhibits, activities, performances, food & beverage

August–September: (Hangar 244)
Hangar Café: Food and beverage (Thursday- Saturday Evenings)

August–September: (Timeline Stage and Dance Floor)
Night Flights
Dance: (Thursday Evenings)
Performing Arts: (Friday or Saturday Evenings)

August – October: (Hangar 244)
Photography Exhibition

October: A Park for Everyone
October 2: Homecoming: (Hangar 244)
Oral History/Participants Reunion

October 11: Teen focused program

October 28: (Picnic Lawn and Hangar 244)
Big Orange Pumpkin: Pumpkin/Decorating and Haunted Hangar

The Orange County Great Park, which is almost twice the size of New York City’s Central Park, will be a major metropolitan park and the focal point of the redevelopment of the 4,700-acre former Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro. The Great Park will include extensive natural areas and open space in addition to recreational and cultural uses.

For more information, please go to www.ocgp.org.

Press Contacts:
Maryann Maloney
(949) 375-0856