We have some bad news to report from the Cedar Rapids Jaycees. According to a recent Facebook post, Uptown Friday Nights are officially over.

Uptown Fridays Nights have been a popular summer event in Cedar Rapids for a very long time. An article from the Corridor Business Journal says that the Friday night concert series officially began in 1988 at the Ground Transportation Center before moving to Greene Square Park in 1997. In 2014, it moved to its final location at the McGrath Amphitheatre. The event served as a big fundraiser for the Cedar Rapids Jaycees.

The last time Uptown Friday Nights were held was back in the summer of 2021. It was announced that August that the season would be ending early, which meant that the three final concerts of the year were cancelled. At the time, KCRG reported that it was due to "a lack of transparency, misuse of funds and grossly misguided information" from the event's director.

Even though Uptown Friday Nights did not happen in the summer of 2022, no official cancellation was ever announced, so there was still hope that the event could eventually return. Those hopes were dashed back on March 22nd when the Uptown Friday Nights Facebook page published this statement:

"The Cedar Rapids Jaycees are sad to announce the discontinuation of Uptown Friday Nights. Due to COVID-19 causing financial hardships and a large dip in membership, we no longer have the resources to put on the shows. We are so thankful for the community jamming with us all these years and look forward to our new projects that will continue to support the Cedar Rapids area."

We will definitely miss spending summer nights down at the McGrath Amphitheatre, but luckily, there's no shortage of live and local music here in the Corridor! You can check out upcoming concerts on the Iowa Live Music Facebook page HERE.

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