2022 Dawn & On Music Festival at Schwiebert Riverfront Park -- July 23.
Saturday, July 23, noon - 11 p.m.
Schwiebert Riverfront Park, 101 17th Street, Rock Island IL
One of the Quad Cities most eagerly anticipated day-long festivals returns on July 23 in the seventh iteration of the Dawn & On Music Festival, with the area musicians of The Dawn hosting bluegrass, funk, roots, reggae, and plenty of rock in nine exhilarating concert sets – from nine much-admired local and regional acts – held in Rock Island's Schwiebert Riverfront Park.
Scheduled to participate in this year's Dawn & On Music Festival: George Porter Jr. & the Runnin' Pardners featuring Joe Marcinek, the ensemble led by the iconic New Orleans funk master and founding member of The Meters; Henhouse Prowlers, the acclaimed four-piece combo whose musicians label themselves "Ambassadors of Bluegrass" and make efforts to promote the genre and other branches of world music; Funk Sauce Brass Band, the touring horn and drum ensemble that formed three years ago in Normal, Illinois; and Einstein's Sister, the local power-pop legends led by vocalist Bill Douglas and guitarist Kerry Tucker whose outfit originated in the mid-'80s and who will perform their fan-favorite "The Police Set" on July 23.
Also featured in the 2022 Dawn & On Music Festival: The Wontu Trees, the Davenport collective who bonded over their shared love of Jamaican reggae and dub music; The Textures, delivering soulful dance tunes courtesy of first-rate musicians and "Lil' Lion" lead vocalist Kelsey Lillion; Orangadang!, longtime local favorites whose members also perform with such outfits as Heads in Motion, Have Your Cake, and the Channel Cats; and Logan Springer & the Wonderfully Wild, the admired alt-county and Americana group from Bettendorf who recently opened for The Ghost of Paul Revere in Davenport's Redstone Room.
And, of course, there will be a set with the hosts of the Dawn & On Music Festival. Composed of Sean Ryan on guitar, Jordan VanOpDorp on keyboards, Dan Olds on bass, Chris Cushman on drums, “Edub” Wilson on percussion, and Derek Fortin, Chrissy Strickland Boyer, and local blues favorite Alan Sweet joining the instrumentalists on vocals, the Western Illinois-based The Dawn has been performing cutting-edge improvisational rock throughout the Midwest for more than a dozen years. The critical and commercial success of the group's 2014 release Waiting on the Storm helped catapult the musicians to major festival experiences including Camp Euforia, Summer Camp, and the inaugural Phases of the Moon. The group also initiated the annually beloved Dawn & On Music Festival, which made its area debut at Len Brown's North Shore Inn in 2015, and after a pandemic-caused absence in 2020, came roaring back to life for 2021, where the assembled talents included the Way Down Wanderers, Magic Beans, and Heads in Motion.
Tickets to the July 23 Dawn & On Music Festival are $20 at the gate with ages 12 and under free, and a variety of food and beverage vendors will be on-site. For more information on the noon-to-midnight outdoor event, visit Facebook.com/dawnandonmusicfestival.
