Who's Coming to Your State Fair?

Then you're outta luck. Free just gets you two tickets to paradise.

 

in colorado,
we have this:

• Friday, August 22nd – Clay Walker
• Saturday, August 23rd – Chris Young
• Wednesday, August 27th – Happy Together Tour
• Thursday, August 28th – Gabriel Iglesias
• Friday, August 29th – Monster Trucks
• Saturday, August 30th – Brantley Gilbert
• Saturday, August 30th – Monster Trucks
• Saturday, August 30th - Demo Derby
• Sunday, August 31st – Celebracion de los Charros
• Sunday, August 31st – Tony Orlando

profoundly depressing.

 

Tell me about it. I live within a half mile of the fairgrounds and hate the fair.Bad enough the music always sucks but the accoustics in the Events center are horrible.

 

New York: free @ Chevy Court ... Steppenwolf, Herman's Hermits, Joan Jett & The Backhearts, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, Doobie Brothers.

 

They have added Korn to the lineup which was quite surprising to me.For one not the fairs typical attraction, and two has Korn been relegated to the state fair circuit?

 

My wife and I are from Toledo originally, and our families still live there so we visit quite a bit. Next month they're having their annual Rib-Off, and in the evening Dennis DeYoung is performing "the hits of Styx." Admission is only $7, so you'd better believe I'll be heading to town that weekend. Apparently they're also having Nugent and War that weekend, but I'll pass on them. I know it's not a State Fair, but it's the same idea.

 

All I can list is our local podunk Goatfest....

Here's the flyer for our upcoming October shindig,

Can't you see it ? Info is available 24 hours at a time. Take the Highway to Where a Country Boy Belongs and see this Hillbilly Band !



Ooops...sorry about the huge picture...hey, at least it's hotlinked !

 

Grandma's racing pigs

 

Richie Valens and the Big Bopper. Or at least fair facsimiles thereof. Joke... Usually these fairs seem to attract some band from decades past who've lost the core or original members (Platters, etc.), a bad county artist, someone who got honorable mention on America's got talent, and perhaps a lower tier hair metal band from back in the day.

 

Illinois State Fair, 2014:
Aug. 8 - American Idols Live
Aug. 9 - Pitbull
Aug 10 - Florida Georgia Line w/ Colt Ford
Aug 11 - Million Dollar Quartet
Aug 12 - Boston, Sweet & April Wine
Aug 13 - Hunter Hayes w/ Sam Hunt & Dan + Shay
Aug 14 - Emblem 3 / MKTO / Midnight Red
Aug 15 - An Evening With Steely Dan
Aug 16 - Jake Owen w/ Parmalee & The Cadillac III
Aug 17 - Robin Thicke w/ Magic!

Not a lot that is my cup of tea, but some surprising big-ish names there...

 

That's quite the trick, with three of the four being dead and all. It's like booking The Beatles.

 

http://www.agr.state.il.us/isf/gstand/milliondollarquartet.html

 

Collective Soul, Doobie Brothers, REO Speedwagon, Steve Miller, Tommy James and the Shondells. Cheap Trick, Blues Traveler, Pat Benatar, Boyz II Men, Grass Roots, Joan Jett, Blue Oyster Cult......those are some of who I saw in the last several years at music festivals (often times free but for a parking fee) that you all have posted as coming to your festivals.....I say go see them if they are in your area, they all were great concerts!

 

Aren't they all?

What about the food, the sunny warm summer, the community getting together to celebrate life?

 

Calamari on a stick.

 

To name the few that people here might appreciate, the bands coming to my county fair:
The Adolescents
Matisyahu
X
Ziggy Marley
Peter Noone/Herman's Hermits
The Go-Go's
Steppenwolf
The Grass Roots
Deep Purple
Blue Oyster Cult
Lynyrd Skynyrd

Plus a tribute concert for Pink Floyd and the Beatles

 

California representing with the Toyota Concert Series:

John Kay & Steppenwolf
Macy Gray
Phil Vassar
Hinder
Wheel of Fortune Auditions (part of the concert series, evidently)
The Spinners
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
Queen Nation (Queen Tribute)
America
Bret Michaels
Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo
Blackjack Billy & Jana Kramer
MercyMe
The Whispers
Trick Pony
Blaze of Glory the Bon Jovi Experience

Color me unimpressed, but it is very state fair-ish, I suppose.

The LA County Fair (also a Toyota Concert Series) looks a little better, actually:

Charlie Wilson
David Nail & Eastin Corbin with special guest Jamie Lynn Spears
Neon Trees with special guest Cher Lloyd
War
Pentatonix
Roberto Tapia & Irene Davi
Third Day & MercyMe
Boyz II Men with Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds
Styx
R5 with special guest Ryland Lynch
JenniferNettles with special guest Brandy Clark
Cheap Trick & Kansas
George Benson & Chaka Khan
The Manhattans featuring Gerald Alston with special guests The Brothers Johnson featuring George Johnson and special guest Larry Williams (wow! who knew he was alive?)
Martina McBride with special guest Dustin Lynch
Raon Ayala y sus Bravos del Norte
Jason Derulo
Heart
LL Cool J featuring DJ Z-Trip with special guest Salt-N-Pepa
Earth, Wind & Fire

Fairs... where old bands go to die. Especially bands "featuring" someone...

 

PNE Vancouver:

Philip Phillips (Aug 16),
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts (Aug 17)
Chilliwack (Aug 19)
Air Supply (Aug 20)
Leann Rimes (Aug 21)
Trooper (Aug 22)
the Gypsy Kings (Aug 23)
Zendaya (Aug 24)
Gavin DeGraw (Aug 26)
Three Days Grace (Aug 27)
Boyz II Men (Aug 28)
Plain White T's (Aug 29)
Dallas Smith (Aug 30)
Glass Tiger (Sep 1).

 

2015 Locally: Chris Tomlin + Under the Sun Tour: Eve6, Uncle Kracker, Better Than Ezra, and Sugar Ray

The State Fair 2015:

Added to the line-up is the Happy Together Tour 2015 on opening day, Aug. 13, Justin Moore with Easton Corbin Aug. 15, Gary Allan with The Swon Brothers Aug. 19, and Casting Crowns with I Am They Aug. 20. Tickets will be available to the public starting June 17 through Ticketmaster. The Happy Together 2015 Tour features The Turtles with Flo and Eddie, The Association, Former Lead Singer of Paul Revere and The Raiders Mark Lindsay, The Grass Roots, The Buckinghams and The Cowsills. These popular bands and performers from the sixties and seventies collectively produced many hit singles including, “Happy Together,” “Windy,” “Kicks,” Midnight Confessions,” “Kind of a Drag,” and “Hair,” respectively.

 

Blah...

I love to see Steve Miller...if it were still 1969.

But you already know what kinda show it will be...

hits...hits...and hits ...

 

Holy Moly! I just checked the site for the "Big E" in Springfield, MA. They've got Charlie Daniels and Southside Johnny and Kansas and Alabama and some country acts I don't know. My shocker was on the free stage in the middle of the midway where people play to whoever is milling around at that time, and the big acts there are Paris Hilton playing DJ and........Dave Davies.

 

no chickens are coming...that's for sure.

 

Oregon has Everclear, Gary Allan, Gabriel Iglesias, Vince Gill, Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Jerrod Niemann, Eric Burdon & The Animals (really?), along with 3 others I don't know.

GA is free/included with fair admission. There are VIP seats, and if you buy VIPs you are automatically entered into a drawing for a meet & greet. VIPs are $25-35.

We've had ZZ Top (for extra $) and Joe Walsh (same) within the last few years. For me, either Vince Gill or Eric Burdon might be worth going for this year. Not sure who comprises "the Animals" these days.

 

Replying to myself to say that these Dave shows (October 2-4) aren't on the tour schedule on Dave's website. He's starting his fall US tour a few days later in Boston, so maybe he's using these fair gigs as rehearsal/warmup. I'll go at least one day, there oughta be a Kinks fan there. Looks like it's as close to a 50th anniversary Kinks show as I'm likely to see.