Returning to the area for its incredible 103rd year, an eagerly awaited six-day festival boasting games, competitions, vendors, and concert sets by more than two dozen national and local acts returns with the 2023 Mississippi Valley Fair, its August 1 through 6 engagement at Davenport's Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds boasting, as always, grandstand performances by chart-toppers, multi-platinum sellers, and multiple-award winners.

Held in conjunction with both the annual endurance test the Quad-City Times Bix 7 and the national biking event RAGBRAI, a brand-new, two-day party will debut on July 28 and 28 in BixBRAI weekend, with attendees treated to activities and live music throughout east, central, and west downtown Davenport locations spanning from the Rock Island Arsenal Bridge to Centennial Park.

Delivering a blend of local history, environmental issues, education, entertainment, and fresh air, Davenport's River Action will again present a series of outdoor presentations in the third and final collection of the annual Channel Cat Talks and Riverine Walks: weekly programs that, from August 1 through September 2, will address such topics as plastic pollution, commercial fishing, Nahant Marsh, and the "creepiness" of the Quad Cities.

Following last summer's delights of their Aristophanes adaptation The Frogs, area-comedy favorites T Green and Calvin Vo – founders of local theatre company Haus of Ruckus – will lend their formidable skills and wild invention to another Aristophanes work during the July 22 through 30 run of The Wasps, delivering another take on classical-Greek comedy sure to delight both fans of, and newcomers to, Genesius Guild's long history of season-ending slapsticks in Rock Island's Lincoln Park.

With the New York Times stating that "the shining achievement of the musical is its winsome country and bluegrass score," and USA Today lauding the book "that's as forthright as it is smart, funny and charming," collaborators Steve Martin's and Edie Brickell's Tony-nominated Bright Star makes its area debut at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, its August 3 through 13 run treating patrons to a musical treat that Stage & Cinema called "full of unforced goodness and rewarded risk-taking."

Lauded by the New York Times' A.O. Scott as "big-screen perfection ... exceptionally well-written, full of wordplay and lively argument." current Barbie visionary Greta Gerwig's coming-of-age masterpiece Lady Bird enjoys a Bettendorf Public Library screening on July 28 in conjunction with the summertime "Find Your Voice" series, a program focused on works about people from marginalized communities that have been historically underrepresented in film.

The last time a sitting Illinois Republican congressperson faced a real primary challenge from a non-incumbent was more than seven years ago, when then-state Senator Kyle McCarter (R-Lebanon) challenged US Representative John Shimkus (R-Collinsville). Even so, nobody really thought McCarter had much of a chance, and, as expected, he ended up losing to Shimkus by more than 20 points. We’ve seen reapportionment-related GOP primaries between congressional incumbents - the most recent being U.S. Representative Rodney Davis’s 2022 crushing loss to fellow U.S. Representative Mary Miller (no relation) - but serious challenges of sitting Republican US Representatives are otherwise fairly rare here.

Are you in need of refreshment? The Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse offers us an Escape to Margaritaville – just the sunny, tropical-fruit-garnished tonic for those of us who'd love a Caribbean getaway, but can't get away.

On display in the Davenport venue's Lewis Gallery through November 5, a selection of images demonstrating the artistry and technological feats of "action" photography can be admired and enjoyed in the Figge Art Museum's Body Movin: Photography of the Body in Motion, an exhibition that encourages viewers to contemplate the grace of the human form.