Chart-toppers, multi-platinum sellers, multiple-award winners, and more are set to electrify crowds as the grandstand entertainment for the July 31 through August 31 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.

Hidden treasures of the Quad Cities, and those who posses them, will be celebrated July 28 through 30 at the Putnam Museum & Science Center, the Davenport venue's interactive exhibition The Great Collectors & YOU allowing families to look at, learn about, and potentially trade personal artifacts encompassing everything from geodes to wood samples to priceless findings from famous Quad Cities families.

Five days of outdoor fun will be on hand when East Moline's Rock Island Country Fairgrounds hosts the annual Rock Island County Fair July 17 through 21, offering patrons mornings, afternoons, and evenings filled with carnival rides, games, food vendors, animal shows, racing tournaments, and exciting events scheduled for the nights' grandstand entertainment.

Appearing locally in a pair of events sponsored by the Midwest Writing Center, award-winning author Marcus Wicker will be the guest at the Rock Island Public Library's July 18 poetry workshop and the Figge Art Museum's July 19 poetry readings. The internationally lauded author has received great praise by outlets worldwide, including the Paris Review, which wrote, “His poems find joy in language and nature, comfort in religion, and express both pride and vulnerability – often all in the same poem.”