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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T120000
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DTSTAMP:20260911T015708Z
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UID:10007538-1789214400-1789218000@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Kids’ Sing-Along with Steve Elci & Friends
DESCRIPTION:Kids’ Sing-Along with Steve Elci & Friends keeps the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival’s youngest sailors\, mermaids and sea monsters moving Saturday\, September 12\, with a free waterfront concert immediately following the festival’s children’s costume parade. \nThe concert is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. at Custom House Pier in downtown New London\, according to the band’s current announcement. Steve Elci & Friends will be joined by costumed characters The Little Mermaid and The Wayfinder for a family sing-along built around familiar songs\, dancing and audience participation. \nBut the poster’s “After the Parade!” isn’t just a bit of nautical decoration. \nThere really is a parade. \nEarlier Saturday\, families can head to Fort Trumbull State Park for free face painting\, make costumes\, and then join the Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade\, one of the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival’s signature children’s events. \nThe parade begins at 11:30 a.m. at Fort Trumbull State Park\, according to the festival’s most recent published information. \nThat makes the two events a natural Saturday pairing: dress up and parade through Fort Trumbull in the morning\, then head downtown for music with Steve Elci & Friends. \n11:30 a.m. — Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Take Over Fort Trumbull\nThe festival’s children’s parade isn’t intended to be something families simply stand along the route and watch. \nKids are encouraged to become part of it. \nSaturday morning’s children’s programming at Fort Trumbull includes free face painting and costume making\, giving kids a chance to transform themselves into mermaids\, pirates\, sea monsters and other maritime characters before the parade begins. \nFree face painting is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Fort Trumbull. \nThe festival describes the parade as a combination of local folklore\, music\, dancers\, military marchers and fantastical sea creatures. Earlier festival materials have also called it the Mermaids and Privateers Children’s Walking Parade\, but the current 2026 family programming identifies it as the Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade. \nIt’s a relatively new tradition. \nThe first Mermaids & Sea Monsters Parade was held during the 2022 Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\, when participants traveled through downtown New London from Bank Street to City Pier. \nBy 2023\, organizers were already calling it the third annual parade. \nFor 2026\, they’ve changed things around. \nInstead of beginning downtown\, this year’s parade is being held at Fort Trumbull State Park\, putting the procession in the middle of the festival’s large family activity area. \nThat also makes it easier for children to create a costume and then immediately become part of the event. \nAfter the Parade\, Steve Elci & Friends Take Over Custom House Pier\nOnce the procession ends\, the party shifts downtown. \nSteve Elci & Friends are scheduled to perform at 12:30 p.m. at Custom House Pier\, with The Little Mermaid and The Wayfinder joining them. \nThe concert is free and designed as a participatory children’s sing-along rather than a conventional sit-and-watch performance. \nThe poster gets directly to the point: \n“It’s time to dance and sing to some of your favorite songs!” \nThat’s familiar territory for Elci. \nSteve Elci Has Been Making Music for Kids Since 2010\nNew London County families may already know Steve Elci & Friends\, but the group’s reach extends well beyond southeastern Connecticut. \nThe award-winning children’s music group has been performing since 2010\, taking its shows from New England to Florida and Nashville. \nElci’s approach to children’s music is deliberately interactive. \nThe goal isn’t to place children quietly in front of a stage while adults perform at them. Singing\, dancing\, movement and participation are built into the experience. \nThat philosophy has also carried into the group’s recorded music and educational projects. \nThe Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival describes Steve Elci & Friends as an Emmy-nominated\, award-winning children’s music group\, and there’s a local reason for that Emmy connection. \nKidsploration Put Elci’s Music Together With Education and Adventure\nIn 2014\, Steve Elci & Friends partnered with The Day newspaper to create Kidsploration\, an online children’s program combining music\, education and adventure. \nThe project earned an Emmy nomination. \nIt was a logical extension of what Elci had already been doing onstage. \nChildren’s entertainment can be fun without treating children as passive spectators. Music can become the doorway into exploring something else. \nThat’s particularly appropriate at the Maritime Heritage Festival. \nA child might arrive because there’s a mermaid. \nThen climb aboard a ship. \nTouch a sea creature. \nWatch a Coast Guard rescue demonstration. \nWalk through a Revolutionary War encampment. \nListen to music. \nAnd leave knowing considerably more about the place where they live than when they arrived. \nThe Little Mermaid and The Wayfinder Join the Band\nSaturday’s concert adds two recognizable seafaring characters to that formula. \nThe festival announcement identifies The Little Mermaid and The Wayfinder as joining Steve Elci & Friends for the sing-along. \nThe Wayfinder character draws on the Polynesian voyaging tradition popularized for modern children through Disney’s Moana\, while The Little Mermaid brings another familiar ocean story into the program. \nTheir presence connects the morning costume parade with the concert that follows. \nChildren who’ve just spent part of the morning dressed as mermaids\, pirates and sea creatures aren’t suddenly being asked to switch gears. \nThe fantasy continues at the pier. \nCustom House Pier Puts the Concert Beside a Working Harbor\nThe setting is particularly good for a children’s maritime concert. \nCustom House Pier sits on South Water Street beside New London’s downtown waterfront\, looking across the Thames River and New London Harbor. \nThis isn’t a decorative body of water created to make a festival look nautical. \nIt’s a working harbor. \nFerries\, recreational boats\, Coast Guard vessels\, commercial traffic and other ships move through the river\, while Naval Submarine Base New London sits upriver in Groton and the Coast Guard Academy occupies the New London side of the Thames. \nA few steps away is Custom House Maritime Museum – New London Maritime Society\, housed in New London’s 1833 U.S. Custom House. \nSo while kids sing about the sea\, the real thing is directly behind them. \nGetting From the Parade to the Concert Takes a Little Planning\nThere’s one important practical detail for parents. \nThe parade and concert are not at the same location. \nThe Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade takes place at Fort Trumbull State Park\, while Steve Elci & Friends perform afterward at Custom House Pier downtown. \nThe festival has anticipated the problem of moving between its waterfront locations. \nFree transportation operates throughout the weekend. \nVisitors can travel aboard the Thames River Heritage Park water taxi or use the festival’s free shuttle buses connecting the major festival areas. \nThe water taxi operates continuously from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday between Fort Trumbull\, City Pier and Thames River Landing in Groton. There isn’t a fixed departure schedule\, and boarding is first-come\, first-served. \nFamilies trying to make the 12:30 concert immediately after the parade should keep the travel time in mind. \nThe festival recommends parking once and using its free transportation to move between locations rather than repeatedly relocating the car. \nThere’s Plenty More for Kids Before and After the Music\nThe parade and Steve Elci concert are only part of Saturday’s family programming. \nThe festival’s Kids Nautical Zone offers crafts\, games and educational activities. \nProject Oceanology brings marine life close enough for children to explore through its touch-tank programming. \nThere’s also Salt\, a life-size inflatable whale that children can actually walk through while learning about whale biology. \nAt 1:30 p.m.\, shortly after Steve Elci & Friends finish\, the U.S. Coast Guard is scheduled to conduct a search-and-rescue helicopter demonstration over the waterfront. \nFamilies can also tour participating vessels during the day\, including military\, training and historic ships visiting New London for the festival. \nAmong the vessels highlighted for 2026 is the USCGC Eagle\, the Coast Guard’s 295-foot tall ship and training vessel. \nThe Eagle’s presence is particularly significant this year because the Coast Guard Academy is celebrating its 150th anniversary. \nSaturday morning’s festival opening includes the unveiling of a new U.S. Postal Service commemorative stamp honoring that anniversary. \nFor a child who comes because they want their face painted like a mermaid\, there’s a surprising amount of real maritime history waiting around the corner. \nTwo Very Different Parades Happen Saturday\nThere’s also a fun contrast built into Saturday’s schedule. \nThe Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade isn’t the only procession taking place in New London. \nAt 7:30 p.m.\, the tone changes considerably when Flock Theatre begins its annual March of the Traitor on Bank Street. \nThat procession commemorates Benedict Arnold’s devastating 1781 attack on New London and leads to Waterfront Park\, where Arnold is burned in effigy. \nA 300-drone light show over the Thames follows later in the evening. \nSo New London gets two parades in one day. \nAt 11:30 a.m.\, children dressed as mermaids and sea monsters march through Fort Trumbull. \nAt 7:30 p.m.\, adults in Revolutionary-era garb march Benedict Arnold toward his fiery demise. \nThat’s a fairly good illustration of just how much the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival is trying to fit into one Saturday. \nStart With a Costume and Stay for the Ships\nFor families with younger children\, the morning-to-afternoon sequence may be one of the easiest ways to approach what is otherwise an enormous festival. \nGet to Fort Trumbull in time for face painting and costume making. \nJoin the Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade at 11:30. \nThen use festival transportation to head downtown. \nAt 12:30\, Steve Elci & Friends\, The Little Mermaid and The Wayfinder take over Custom House Pier. \nAnd when the music ends\, the ships\, touch tanks\, waterfront activities and Coast Guard demonstration are still waiting. \nThe Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival is ostensibly about preserving the state’s relationship with the sea. \nSaturday’s children’s programming approaches that mission from a different direction. \nFirst\, make the sea fun. \nThe history can follow. \nDetails\nEvent: Kids’ Sing-Along with Steve Elci & Friends\nFestival: Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTime: 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.\nPerformers: Steve Elci & Friends with The Little Mermaid and The Wayfinder\nLocation: Custom House Pier\nStreet: South Water Street\, New London\, CT\nAdmission: Free\nAges: All ages / family program\nProgram: Children’s music\, singing and dancing\nRelated Event: Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade\nParade Time: 11:30 a.m.\nParade Location: Fort Trumbull State Park\, 90 Walbach Street\, New London\nBefore the Parade: Free face painting and costume making; face painting is scheduled from 10 a.m.–3 p.m. Saturday\nImportant: The parade and concert take place at different festival locations\nTransportation: Free festival shuttle buses and Thames River Heritage Park water taxi service connect festival areas\nWater Taxi Hours: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; continuous service with no fixed departure schedule and first-come\, first-served boarding\nFestival: Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival runs September 12–13 along the New London waterfront\nParking: Festival organizers recommend parking in a downtown Water Street garage or near Fort Trumbull and using the free transportation system between festival locations\nWeather: Outdoor festival programming may be affected by weather; check the festival’s current schedule before traveling \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \n  \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/kids-sing-along-with-steve-elci-friends/
LOCATION:Custom House Pier\, South Water Street\, New London\, CT\, 06320\, United States
CATEGORIES:Custom House Pier
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Kids-Sing-Along-with-Steve-Elci-Friends.jpg
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T193000
DTSTAMP:20260905T023915Z
CREATED:20260905T023915Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260905T023915Z
UID:10007473-1789236000-1789241400@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Mass-Conn-Fusion at the CT Maritime Heritage Festival
DESCRIPTION:Mass-Conn-Fusion at the CT Maritime Heritage Festival brings more than four decades of funk\, soul\, Motown\, and dance music to the New London waterfront on Saturday\, September 12\, performing from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Custom House Pier. \nThe concert is free and lands in a prime spot on Saturday’s festival schedule. Mass-Conn-Fusion takes the waterfront stage as the daytime activities begin giving way to an evening that includes New London’s Burning of Benedict Arnold tradition and the festival’s 300-drone light show over the Thames River. \nFor a band built around horns\, vocals and a rhythm section designed to get people moving\, it’s a fitting assignment: turn the waterfront into a dance floor before Saturday night’s biggest spectacles begin. \nMore Than 40 Years of Mass-Conn-Fusion\nMass-Conn-Fusion’s story goes back to the University of Connecticut Music Department\, where bassist James “Jim” Healy formed a group originally called Conn-Fusion. \nThe name changed as Healy began performing extensively in Massachusetts with musicians drawn from both states. \nMassachusetts plus Connecticut plus fusion became Mass-Conn-Fusion. \nThe concept stuck. \nHealy has now led the group for more than 45 years\, making Mass-Conn-Fusion a remarkably durable part of Connecticut’s live-music landscape. \nOver that time\, the band has performed at festivals\, town concert series\, clubs\, casinos\, weddings and community events across New England. Rather than building its identity around one musical era\, Mass-Conn-Fusion developed a repertoire capable of moving across several generations of dance music. \nMotown\, R&B\, Funk\, Disco and Pop\nMass-Conn-Fusion describes its musical territory simply: Motown\, R&B\, funk\, disco and popular music stretching from the 1960s through current hits. \nThat’s a broad assignment\, but the band’s instrumentation helps make it work. \nThe full Mass-Conn-Fusion ensemble has traditionally combined multiple vocalists with horns\, guitar\, bass and drums. That gives the group the tools to handle music where the rhythm section and horn arrangements matter as much as the melody. \nThis isn’t an acoustic cover act adapting everything to guitar. \nIt’s music built to move. \nThe band’s repertoire has included material associated with artists such as Stevie Wonder\, Earth\, Wind & Fire\, Aretha Franklin\, Chaka Khan\, Michael Jackson\, Bruno Mars\, Prince and other soul\, funk\, disco and pop performers. \nThe common denominator is the groove. \nJim Healy Has Been at the Center From the Beginning\nHealy remains the link between the band’s earliest UConn days and its current performances. \nThe bassist and bandleader has spent more than four decades keeping Mass-Conn-Fusion working while its lineup and repertoire evolved around him. \nFor a September 2026 performance at Connecticut’s Old State House\, the ensemble was billed with Healy on bass\, Trinity Warren on vocals\, Gianni Gardner on guitar\, Tim Urso on drums and Liz Roberts on saxophones. \nThe Maritime Heritage Festival’s promotional image depicts a larger configuration\, consistent with the band’s ability to perform in different formats. \nMass-Conn-Fusion isn’t limited to one fixed arrangement. In addition to the full band\, it performs in smaller duo and trio configurations for more intimate settings. \nCustom House Pier gets the concert version. \nA Band Designed for a Festival Crowd\nMass-Conn-Fusion makes particular sense on a festival bill because there’s no prerequisite for enjoying it. \nThe Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival will draw families\, sailors\, veterans\, history enthusiasts\, downtown visitors and people who simply want to spend a September weekend on the waterfront. \nA dance band covering decades of recognizable soul\, funk and pop can reach across those groups. \nSomeone who grew up with Motown can find something familiar. So can someone whose reference point is 1970s funk or disco. The repertoire continues through later R&B and contemporary pop. \nThat’s been a large part of Mass-Conn-Fusion’s longevity. \nThe songs change. \nThe purpose doesn’t. \nGet people moving. \nCustom House Pier Puts the Music Beside a Working Harbor\nSaturday’s setting adds something a conventional stage can’t. \nCustom House Pier sits directly on New London’s downtown waterfront\, overlooking the Thames River and the working harbor. \nThe pier is adjacent to the historic Custom House Maritime Museum and close to Waterfront Park\, putting the concert in the middle of the activity rather than separating it into a distant entertainment area. \nFrom there\, the harbor itself becomes part of the backdrop. \nNew London remains an active maritime city\, with ferries\, commercial vessels\, recreational boats and Coast Guard traffic sharing the waters around the mouth of the Thames. \nDuring Maritime Heritage Festival weekend\, visiting military and private vessels add to that landscape. \nMass-Conn-Fusion will be playing in the middle of the maritime story the festival was created to celebrate. \nMusic Leads Into a Big Saturday Night\nThe 6 p.m. start also makes Mass-Conn-Fusion an easy bridge between the festival’s daytime and nighttime programming. \nThe Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival runs throughout Saturday with vessel tours\, living-history encampments\, children’s activities\, demonstrations\, vendors and other maritime programming at New London Waterfront Park and Fort Trumbull State Park. \nMass-Conn-Fusion takes over Custom House Pier from 6 to 7:30 p.m. \nThen New London gets weird. \nAt 7:30 p.m.\, the city’s annual Burning of Benedict Arnold tradition begins\, commemorating the September 1781 attack on New London and Groton led by the Connecticut-born Revolutionary War general who had defected to the British. \nAn effigy of Arnold is marched through downtown toward the waterfront before meeting its annual fate. \nAfter that comes one of the festival’s biggest new attractions: a 300-drone light show above the Thames River\, with synchronized drones creating illuminated maritime images over the waterfront. \nThat makes Mass-Conn-Fusion more than an isolated concert on the schedule. \nIt’s the opening act for an entire evening in downtown New London. \nPart of a Two-Day Celebration of Connecticut’s Maritime Story\nThe Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival takes place September 12 and 13 at New London Waterfront Park and Fort Trumbull State Park. \nThe two-day festival brings together active maritime services and centuries of regional history through vessel tours\, Coast Guard demonstrations\, Revolutionary War living history\, children’s activities\, music and maritime traditions. \nFree water taxis and shuttle buses connect the festival locations\, allowing visitors to move between downtown and Fort Trumbull without repeatedly relocating their cars. \nMass-Conn-Fusion is one piece of that larger weekend\, but its Saturday evening time slot gives the band a particularly visible role. \nAfter a day devoted to Connecticut’s maritime past and present\, the festival turns toward music. \nAnd for 90 minutes on Custom House Pier\, the soundtrack is going to be funkier than anything heard aboard a 19th-century sailing ship. \nEvent Details\nEvent: Mass-Conn-Fusion at the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTime: 6–7:30 p.m.\nLocation: Custom House Pier\nCity: New London\, CT\nMusic: Motown\, R&B\, funk\, soul\, disco and pop\nAdmission: Free\nFestival: Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\nFestival Dates: September 12–13\, 2026\nSaturday Evening: Mass-Conn-Fusion is followed by the Burning of Benedict Arnold and the festival’s 300-drone light show \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/mass-conn-fusion-at-the-ct-maritime-heritage-festival/
LOCATION:Custom House Pier\, South Water Street\, New London\, CT\, 06320\, United States
CATEGORIES:Custom House Pier
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Mass-Conn-Fusion-at-the-CT-Maritime-Heritage-Festival.jpg
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