The weather’s been warming up in Newton, and with it, the Hyde Community Center’s summer tradition is back in full swing.

Every Friday night from June to early September, residents gather at the Hyde bandstand for an evening filled with music, movies, and community. The Hyde Community Center’s Summer in the Highlands program has become a popular aspect of local summer life, all starting with one concert nearly two decades ago.

“The first time we did a concert at Hyde was 2006,” said Hyde Executive Director John Rice. “We basically did one concert, and people loved it.”

Following the success of that first concert, Rice and the center’s staff expanded the series into a comprehensive summer program.

“Within a year or two we decided to do a concert every Friday night, all summer,” said Rice. “After the concert happens, then we play a movie to the community.”

This year’s season will again feature weekly Friday night concerts ranging from a 20 piece band playing 1940s hits to classic country music—and even a live performance of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part I.” Each screening is followed by an outdoor family-friendly movie, including “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Inside Out 2.” The events are free and open to all, gathering hundreds of community members each week, according to Rice.

“People bring out their blankets and chairs, and people start coming from the neighborhood as well,” he said. “They start rolling in with their bikes and their food and sometimes they bring trailers, they bring their tables and food–it’s really great.”

While the Hyde Center operates independently, it maintains a close relationship with the city.

“The partnership we’ve had long term has been really great for us, because we do a permit,” explained Rice. “The minute you leave our bandstand steps, you leave Hyde property, and then the rest of the playground is city of Newton park property.”

The bandstand itself is a product of community effort, a collaboration between the Commodore builders and the Hyde Community Center as a community service project.

“The Commodore builders basically donated, like $200,000 worth of labor, labor and Hyde spent around $30,000 and we built the bandstand,” said Rice. “And so from 2013 on, we have a bandstand where people can do the concerts and then play the movies after the concerts.”

While the event has become a summer favorite, the weather still presents an unpredictable challenge. However, even with rain, the concert and movie still occur inside the Hyde Gymnasium.

“It’s the nights where it’s a 50% chance of rain, where at four o’clock I have to make the decision whether we stay in the bandstand or go inside,” Rice said.

Even with unseen factors and variation in the music and movies, the spirit of the event remains consistent, according to Rice.

“No matter what music is or or what the movie is, the people are just attracted to just pull together and be together as a community,” he said.

In fact, over the past twenty years, Rice said he has only missed two Fridays of Summer in the Highlands.

“One was my daughter’s wedding,” he said. “And the other was when I got COVID.”