Celebration fest offers full musical bill this weekend
CHARLESTON – Eastern Illinois University's annual Celebration: A Festival of the Arts runs today, Saturday and Sunday on the EIU campus, presenting a variety of music and art.
The headline act will be Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, who will perform at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. The bluegrass pioneer and Grammy Award-winner has performed and recorded professionally for more than 60 years. His music was featured in the Coen brothers' film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"
Other groups performing today include American English, one of the nation's premiere Beatles tribute bands, scheduled for 4 p.m.; Little Boy Jr.; and Roses and Sake, as well as Eastern's Jazz Lab Band, the EIU Concert Band and University Band.
The Charleston Community Theatre will present a Singalong Sound of Music, to Rodgers and Hammerstein music, on all three days of the festival, at 6:30 p.m. today, 4:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.
On Saturday, the festival kicks off at 10 a.m. with a performance by the Nova Scotians, who play Latin, jazz and funk tunes, and the Hobo Wives, who specialize in a bluegrass-inspired country with four-part harmony. They will play before Ralph Stanley.
Other acts Saturday include the New Mules, Motherlode and the Airtight String Band. On Sunday, Mark Dvoark will return to perform the music of Pete Seeger and Woody Gutherie. Dennis Stroughmatt et l'Espirit Creole will perform Cajun and Creole music, and Mhondoro Rhythm Success, a Champaign-Urbana band, will perform the pop music of Zimbabwe.
Other featured performances on Saturday afternoon include the Multi-Cultural Concert by the University's Women's Chorus, Concert Choir, University Mixed Choir and the Percussion Ensemble.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, Elaine Fine and John David Moore will perform classical music – sonatas by Joaquin Turina, Ludwig van Beethoven and Gabriel Faure – in EIU's Tarble Arts Center.
Other activities at Celebration: A Festival of the Arts include an art fair Saturday and Sunday, a children's art area and food booths. Admission is free. For a schedule of events, visit the Celebration Web site at www.eiu.edu/~festival.
Celebration is hosted by EIU's College of Arts and Humanities and supported by city of Charleston Tourism Funds, the Illinois Arts Council, Consolidated Communications and the Development Campaign for Celebration.
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