Wade’s ‘Best of Brown County’ Experience

The Brown County Chamber of Commerce recently announced the winners of this year’s “Best of Brown County” awards. The Best of Brown County was created to celebrate all that Brown County has to offer including food destinations, live entertainment, and local historic sites. Over the next several weeks, Wade Linville (editor of The News Democrat, The Ripley Bee, and The Brown County Press) will be visiting each of the locations that earned a “Best of Brown County Award” and writing about his experience. This is part two of Wade’s Best of Brown County Experience featuring Brown County’s 2022 winner of Best Live Music, Mt. Orab Music in the Park.

By Wade Linville

In 2010, Woody Whittington and the late Mt. Orab Mayor Bruce Lunsford teamed up to bring the public its first Mt. Orab Music in the Park.

Whittington told Lunsford if there were some electric available in the open field at the park that he could call some guys and bring in some bands to play. It didn’t take long for Lunsford to get electric to the field, and Whittington started planning a concert.

The first Mt. Orab Music in the Park featured a bluegrass band and a country music band that played under a large tent that was purchased from the local United Methodist Church. The show drew a crowd of 75.

Two weeks later, with help from sponsors, they put on another Mt. Orab Music in the Park concert that featured a country music band, and approximately 150 people showed up.

“It just kept growing and growing,” said Whittington. “I told Bruce, ‘We don’t have to feed it, we don’t have to water it, it just keeps growing.’”

The next goal was to build a permanent stage, an amphitheater, mainly so they didn’t have to keep putting up and taking down the large tent before and after each concert.

Sponsorship for the amphitheater came rolling in and it didn’t take too long to receive enough donations to purchase a kit and have it set up.

“With me knowing the bands and Bruce knowing what to do, it just kept getting bigger,” said Whittington.

The two would travel together out of state to scout bands to play at Mt. Orab Music in the Park. Lunsford served as the Mt. Orab mayor for more than 41 years, dying in February of this year after a long battle with cancer.

“He loved Music in the Park as much as I do,” Whittington said of his long-time friend Bruce Lunsford. “I miss him. It’s not the same without him, but I keep on going for him.”

Mt. Orab Music in the Park held its most recent concert on July 16 with local country music artist Noah Smith and Turn it Up (Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Band) performing for a huge crowd.

During the July 16 concert, Whittington (Mt. Orab Music in the Park coordinator) took the stage to receive the 2022 Best of Brown County Live Music Award from the Brown County Chamber of Commerce.

“I can’t believe it,” Whittington said after receiving the award. “I’m overwhelmed that they would ever choose Music in the Park.”

It just so happens that the “Best of Brown County Live Music” is free to the public thanks to Whittington, the late Lunsford, a number of sponsors and others who have assisted over the years. There are two more Mt. Orab Music in the Park concerts scheduled for this year, one on Aug. 6 and another on Aug. 27.

The July 16 Mt. Orab Music in the Park concert drew a huge crowd. People of all ages enjoyed the sounds of Noah Smith and Turn it Up.

There was even a dance performance by KAMP Dovetail to entertain the crowd between shows.

Whittington and Lunsford took their love of live music and turned it into something that brings free and enjoyable live entertainment to the Mt. Orab community for all ages.

For more information on Mt. Orab Music in the Park, you can message Woody Whittington on Facebook.