A cvFree Church Porchfest event held earlier this month. Porchfest will be returning at 6 p.m. on August 31 at 23 Silver Street in Norwich, and cvFree will also be bringing back their annual concert event, "cvFree in the City," after a few years off due to the COVID pandemic. The free, family-friendly concert will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, August 3 in Norwich's East Park. (Photo from the cvFree Church Facebook page)

NORWICH — Norwich-based Free Methodist Church cvFree is bringing back its annual "cvFree in the City" event after a few years off due to COVID-19. The free, family-friendly concert will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, August 3 in Norwich's East Park.

"There’s going to be two bands there. The first one that’s opening is Secure the Fallen. They’re a local band that kind of started here, and what's kind of neat about that is two of the band members have since moved to the Buffalo area and so they’re coming back for this concert to be able to play together. So that’s going to be pretty cool," said cvFree Director of Creative Arts Jim Potter. "After that, we have Winona Avenue coming, and they are a national touring band. They’ve been all over the nation with their debut album."

"We’ve had them here once before for an event at our church.We said they were great, we thought it would be awesome to do something in the middle of town and bring them into the middle of town to share their music with more people, so we’re really excited about it," he added.

Also setting up shop in the park that evening will be the Kandi's Kitchen food truck, as well as tables with information about several local organizations.

"Fidelis is going to be there with a table. The Set Free Movement is going to be there. There’s also going to be some information about Aunt Mary’s House. There will be some information about the Child Advocacy Center," said Potter. "So different programs that are or are becoming available for our area, too. We kind of partner with some of them to bring tables and get information out to people."

Potter said the church is keeping the concert "low key" this year as they get back into the swing of holding larger events after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, attendees can still expect a fun evening of music, food, and games.

"It’s also family-friendly. That’s kind of the whole point, is so families have the ability to go out and enjoy some family-friendly and safe music and just have some time together. I know how expensive it can get trying to go to concerts or anything else anymore, especially if you’ve got a decent sized family; it really adds up quickly, especially with inflation and gas prices and everything else," Potter said. "So we wanted to offer something in town that was just going to be a blessing and allow families to go enjoy it and not break the bank trying to have a time out with their family."

"We’re just thinking, let’s find a way to make this possible for our community to just have a chance to do that, and they’ve done a great job with that on Thursday nights; but this is just another chance for families to have some time out together and enjoy some music," he added. "We’re hoping to pack it out and get as many people as we can there and just enjoy the time."

cvFree Church will also host another installment of Porchfest — summer music events at their extension located at 23 Silver Street in Norwich.

"We kind of sandwiched it with our events that we do. We call it Porchfest, and we do those at our Silver Street location. So we already had one of those in July, but we’re also going to offer another one in August on the 31st. That also starts at 6 [p.m.]," Potter explained. "We play some music on the porch, kind of close down the one road there so that people can just come and enjoy the music. We offer cornhole and games for the kids, and it’s just kind of a fun time over at that location."

More information on cvFree Church and cvFree Silver can be found at cvFree.church and on the cvFree Church Facebook page.