Swiss Park

After I booked Swiss Park, and realized how far it was...I was regretting it...a little. But, hey, it's another adventure, right? Swiss Park found our band on the internet and we (none of us) can say no to a gig!! This was my first view of the place:

When we went inside, I was in LOVE with this place. It's soooo cool! It was originally built by the Swiss farming community a long time ago. Can you imagine a FARMING community in Fremont? Well Newark, actually. The members of the community all paid dues to build and maintain the property, and...get this...they still pay dues and own the property, to this day! Wow. Great piece of history.


The inside is spectacular. Very tall ceiling. Lots of space. Twinkle lights. I just LOVED it. They had a big stage, that was very high up. Bob, the manager who booked us, told us it was our choice to set up on stage or down on the dance floor. He didn't expect a big crowd, so we set up down below. The folks at Swiss Park were all so nice to us! I wish we did live closer, I would love to be a regular patron.

They also rent out the hall for events, and they have a HUGE picnic area out front. It's a very cool place.



Last week we played for a private party in Pine Grove (very fun group!), and we met a new friend, Janet, who was visiting from the bay area. Janet came to Swiss Park to see us and for the first two sets, she was pretty much the only person there!! Janet loves to dance and made good use of the dance floor!! And, she is so sweet that she called a couple of people to come join her. Wasn't that nice? Eventually, she had to leave and we were left to wonder if we were going to play to an empty room for the rest of the night.


There were a few folks in the bar, and they were enjoying us. We know, because they would applaud our songs.


And, then, during our 3rd set, a lady called her "country" friends to come down and dance. We played some line dance songs for them and that was a BLAST. And, soon a large party of folks in formal attire showed up to PARTY! They had left a wedding and were ready to have a great time.


That really boosted the energy for us and soon we were all having a ROCKIN time!


By the end of the evening we did 5 (YEP 5) encores! And, when we were breaking down the equipment, a fellow came over to Steve and offered to pay us to do ANOTHER set. Steve was bummed that we already had the equipment half put away. I think he really wanted to play another set. It was a four hour gig, so I think we were all ready to take the long trek home.

All in all, it wasn't really that far. We loved the place and the people and would absolutely go back!