Friday evening provided a sunny start to Sumner’s Rhubarb Pie Festival with the first installment of Music off Main’s free summer concerts.

The Puyallup Valley Community Band opened with the Star Spangled Banner and played through the evening with a variety of patriotic songs, big band classics and marches.

Ice cream, hot dogs and hamburgers were available for those who didn’t bring a picnic dinner and the YMCA set up a booth for anyone interested in the new Sumner facility, which is scheduled to open fall 2013. Families danced and frolicked in the grass as the band played and the sun dropped further behind the trees.

The special opening concert was held at Rainier View Park but subsequent Music off Main shows will take place at Heritage Park in downtown Sumner. Next on the ticket is the Andy Shofner Band at 6:30 p.m. July 5. Andy Shofner is a Sumner musician with a southern rock/country sound. Music off Main is hosted by the Sumner Arts Commission.

Sumner’s Rhubarb Pie Festival features many more events from now until August 18 including Rhubarb Days, Sumner Fine Arts Festival and showings of The Music Man by Sumner Performing Arts Center. Details can be found online at the official Rhubarb Pie Capital website.