Chart-toppers, multi-platinum sellers, multiple-award winners, and more are set to electrify crowds as the grandstand entertainment for the July 30 through August 4 Mississippi Valley Fair, the eagerly awaited six-day festival boasting games, competitions, vendors, and concert sets by more than two dozen national and local acts.

With New Noise magazine deeming it “a band that keeps getting better” whose members “seemingly have no problem pushing the boundaries of their unique creativeness,” the Indiana-based musicians of Murder by Death perform as Moeller Nights headliners on July 26, their concert at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn sure to prove why Americana Highways calls the group's most recent album The Other Shore “indie-rock meets Gothic-Americana at its finest.”

Music lovers wouldn't necessarily consider the styles an ideal match. But on August 1, Blues Beatles will wow Rhythm City Casino Resort visitors by instilling the songs of John, Paul, George, and Ringo will distinct blues rhythms and phrasing – a blend that had On Stage Magazine raving that the group's Brazilian musicians “seamlessly and successfully melded classic Beatles tunes with deep-down Southern blues. These reinventions of familiar Beatles music lead a listener to wonder what would have happened if the Beatles had signed with Motown through some crazy twist of fate.”

Described by the New York Times as “an astonishingly durable interactive murder mystery” with an “inclusive spirit of fun,” the slapstick comedy Shear Madness makes its eagerly awaited return to Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse July 24 through September 7, the theatre's 2016 presentation of the show inspiring the River Cities' Reader's Jeff Ashcraft to deem it “uproarious, farcical, and fabulous,” as well as “one wild and colorful ride.”