LANCASTER — The Lancaster Festival Or- chestra members brought their instruments as thou- sands of concertgoers watched.

The orchestra per- formed Saturday night be- fore the Flying Karama- zov Brothers took the stage at Ohio University Lancaster Campus.

This was Matthew Ag- new's first year playing in The Festival Orchestra. He performed Thursday night at St. Mary Church, and said so far, his experi- ence with The Festival has been great.

"It's really nice to see this kind of support for the arts," he said.

The last time he played a show like the show at OU-L was in high school, Agnew said. So he was re- ally excited to be a part of this year's Festival.

Concert attendees Mor- gan Coakley, 12, and Hele- na Abibin, 12, said this year they were really ex- cited about The Festival because they wanted to see the Karamazov Broth- ers perform.

"We thought it would be really neat to see them" Abibin said.

This was Coakley's third year attending The Festi- val, and she said she's ex- cited about Saturday's fireworks, which is her fa- vorite part of The Festival.

Some Festivalgoers at- tended Saturday's concert because it was a chance to see friends and family they hadn't seen in a long time. But for Lorie Fitz and her mother Linda Pritchard, The Festival was a chance to have mother and daughter time — something they didn't always think they would get the opportunity to do.

Fitz had a massive heart attack June 29, and her mother, Pritchard, used to have a substance abuse problem.

"We do this (spend time together) as often as we can," Pritchard said. "It was something we used to talk about doing, but now we're making sure we do those things."

The two women agreed that watching Saturday's concert together was a blessing.

They said they plan to go to their second concert next year.

After the orchestra per- formed, Fitz said she was enjoying her first time at a Festival concert.

Fitz's favorite thing about the orchestra's per- formance was how Mae- stro Gary Sheldon told a story about each song be- fore it was performed.

Before one song, he ex- plained that it sounded as if the instruments were laughing.

"They're ( the orches- tra) very talented," she said. "It's nice to get a lit- tle bit of a background behind each song."

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