FAIRMONT, W.Va. (WV News) — From tribute shows to Shakespeare in the Park, Palatine Park released its official list of free events for summer 2022 this week, and organizers hope people come out to the park to see what all the excitement is about.
After the summer kicks off over Memorial Day Weekend with the Three Rivers Festival, the park will dive right into the first show of its popular “Legends Series,” which showcases two or three tribute bands to famous acts every show. Marion County Administrator Kris Cinalli, who books and organizes the shows at the park, said the Legends Series always draws big crowds of people looking for a good time.
“The tributes do well, and I think this year’s tribute lineup is as good, if not maybe even better, than last year’s,” Cinalli said. “It’s a pretty wide span of music taste there, and genres and subgenres. Those should go well, and I’m looking forward to them.”
June 4 marks the first Legends Series show, which will feature Completely Unchained, a Van Halen tribute band, and LIVE WIRE, a tribute band to AC/DC.
Then, on June 11, Palatine Park will host its first “Ladies Night”, featuring music by Kendra Morris and Trish Toledo. Cinalli said that the event will cater more to women, but all are welcome.
“I’m pretty sure it’s the first time we’ve done anything dedicated strictly to the ladies,” Cinalli said. “Obviously, it’s not that the fellas aren’t welcome. For this specific night, there are two female performers and some local businesses are going to do some giveaways for the women. It’s been a rough couple of years, and they’ve been keeping everything together between schools and kids, so we wanted to do something to let them come out, relax a little bit and have a night on us.”
June 18 marks Soulful Saturday, an event featuring soul bands Doby, The Freedom Affair and Kaleta & Super Yamba Band, all of which hail from different corners of the country.
“We’ve got a pretty good selection of people from around the country coming to Palatine to perform, which is exciting,” Cinalli said. “It keeps it fresh.”
June 25 is the 2022 Sounds Good Festival, hosted by Aristotle Jones and featuring music from several local bands about which Cinalli is very excited.
The next Legends Series event will also celebrate Independence Day on July 2, featuring Allman Brothers Tribute Band The Allmost Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band Second Helping.
On July 9, the Johnnie Johnson Festival returns to Palatine Park, with three bands — AJ & The Jiggawatts, Eddie 9V and GA-20 — performing. Cinalli said that of all the shows, he may be most excited about this one.
“Those are three excellent bands, two of which have started to blow up a bit since they were booked,” Cinalli said. “To have them coming to West Virginia nails what we’re trying to do with the festival and at Palatine. It kind of works, with bands that are getting bigger and bigger on the map and helping us put Palatine on the map, get people from the region to notice us and get people from North Central West Virginia to come check us out.”
On July 16, Palatine Park will host its annual Shakespeare in the Park performance, which this year will be “Love’s Labour Lost”.
Continuing on last year’s successful “A Taste of New Orleans” event, July 23 will mark a “Taste of Italy”, a show that will feature music from Four Seasons tribute band Jersey Seasons and Tommy Ward and Morgantown Jazz IX. In addition, those in attendance will year snippets of decades worth of the locally popular “Italian Radio Hour Show”.
July’s events will wrap up on July 30 with another Legends Series event, this time featuring Motley Crue tribute band The Crue and Nightrain, a tribute band to Guns N’ Roses.
On Aug. 6, the park’s second New Faces of Country event will rock the stage, featuring Raelyn Nelson — Willie Nelson’s granddaughter — and Walker Montgomery, John Michael Montgomery’s nephew.
Cinalli is also very excited for the park’s Aug. 13 Community Jam. Local musician Byron “Six Six” Cooper will open for two legends of classic hip-hop — “It Takes Two” performer Rob Base and Tone Loc, most known for his hits “Wild Thing” and “Funky Cold Medina”.
“We lined up Tone Loc pretty early, but were trying to find the second act for a while,” Cinalli said. “We had a lot of good options. … We ended up landing Rob Base, so that will make it a huge late 80s/early 90s rap throwback show. It’ll be another great might at Palatine, and it should be huge, really.”
The next two weeks feature back-to-back Legends Series shows. On Aug. 20, Billy Joel tribute Pianoman and Chicago tribute Chicago Rewired will perform. On Aug. 27 What a Fool Believes, a Doobie Brothers tribute band, and Petty & the Heartshakers, a Tom Petty tribute band, will rock the stage.
The summer’s final show — Hootin’ in the Haller — will be on Sept. 3, featuring music from Kris Lager Band and The Hootin’ Hallers.
Cinalli encouraged everyone in the area to make it out to a few shows this summer, promising a good time for people of all ages.
“We have a lot of variation in our scheduling this year again, so pick what you like and come out and check us out,” Cinalli said. “We’ll have a lot more information online prior to the events as far as vendors and some other things going on along with the shows, so just check us out. Don’t miss what we have lined up for this summer.”
*Originally published by WVNews.com
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