Pumping up for the Ann Arbor Summer Festival

Pumping up for the Ann Arbor Summer Festival

Above, Robb Woulfe, director of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, watches anxiously Thursday night as an inflatable movie screen goes up in a test run at the new site for the festival's popular Top of the Park program. Construction at the University of Michigan's Fletcher Street parking structure, which is the usual site for Top of the Park's free music and movies, has moved the event to East Washington Street at Thayer Street between U-M's Rackham Auditorium and Ingalls Mall.

The three-week-plus festival begins today. (Information on each evening's music and movies will appear on this page in the left-hand column each day of the festival and each Thursday in Spotlight magazine. There's also information at

www.annarborsummerfestival.org.

PHOTO: LEISA THOMPSON,THE ANN ARBOR NEWS

Top of the Park ready to open at new site tonight

There are two lines securing the screen on each of four corners. The rear lines are tied to the stage and to 480-pound barrels of water; those in the front are attached to concrete weights.

■ The screen is 18 x 24 feet.

■ A small power blower inflates it all in about 10 to 12 minutes.

■ The screen will stand up to 25 mph winds. Stronger winds will break the pins that hold the screen in place, so the screen will flap instead of ripping.

■ Uninflated, the screen rolls up into a package about 2 1/2 feet in diameter.

■ Movies are shown about 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday.

■ Top of the Park vendor sales begin at 6:30 p.m. Bands usually start at 7 p.m.

■ The festival runs through July 9.

SONIA L. GOTTFRIED, THE Ann ARBOR NEWS