Once again, we are gearing up for another big weekend here in downtown Springfield. As you all should know, The Skatalites from Jamaica play here for free in three days out on the Y-Block downtown as part of the Levitt AMP Concert Series. That is this Thursday night. Then Friday and Saturday night is the Legacy of Giving Music Festival going on downtown for the fifteenth consecutive year if you count its predecessor music festival, SOHO which started in 2004. Legacy of Giving, or LOG Fest has their own website where you can check out a list of bands right here. We’ve found their schedules for Friday and Saturday posted above might be the best way to figure out what bands are playing where on each of the five stages at what times on Friday and Saturday. We got that from the festival’s facebook page. We hear there is a total of 67 bands (we’ll believe that number without trying to count all of those).

This year Dumb Records and Bread Blasters is involved with one of the official aftershows Saturday night, which is also in conjunction with the Creative Earth Art Show happening at our space this Saturday, June 8th from 5:00 to 9:00 pm. Find more info as far as artists involved right here. We do have poetry and musical acts from Fuzzlove, Cody Jones, Hope Fiend, and Shatriya Smith. The event is also free!

Find a facebook event for all of Legacy of Giving right here. By the way, admission for the festival is only $5 and goes to a bunch of different local charities! All ages of course!

Trying to stay in the loop with all of the music festivals happening here in town and Central Illinois this summer! A festival whose lineup was recently announced and started in Central Illinois the same time that Dumb Fest did (which would have also been on its seventh year), is Audiofeed Music Festival which takes place at the fairgrounds in Urbana, Illinois each year. This year “Volume 07” of the festival is taking place from Thursday July 4th through Saturday July 6th. The poster is above, although there are so many bands listed there that you might have trouble reading them. You can find a close-up and probably more readable version of the poster on the Audiofeed website right here. You can also find ticket info and more FAQ’s on the Audiofeed website. We find it worth mentioning that our friends over at The Radon Lounge are some of the many people involved in setting up this festival every year.

Also find a facebook event for Audiofeed Music Festival right here.

Now that summer is quickly approaching we are trying to stay on top of all of these festival announcements that are happening! Especially the ones in downtown Springfield – but also those that are happening in nearby Central Illinois cities. Bloomington, Illinois is a little over an hour away from us and the annual punk music fest “Midwest Punkfest” is happening for the eleventh year believe it or not from June 13th through the 16th. This year the fest is mostly happening at the new and happening downtown Bloomington venue Nightshop. There is a total of over fifty bands playing over a course of four days. Find the full list of bands announced on the Midwest Punkfest facebook event here. Notable acts include Springfield’s own Park, Hospital Job, then also heavy hitters Brenden Kelly (of Lawrence Arms), Direct Hit, 88 Fingers Louie and many more.

Check out a facebook event fro Midwest Punkfest here. Ticket info can also be found there.

What’s all this talk of some big music fest going on next month outside of Springfield over in Virden, Illinois?? There’s something going on out there called “Mansion Musicfest” and it looks like QUITE the spring/summer event. With an entire 44 artists announced so far taking place between FOUR different stages over a span of THREE days, and more artists still “to be announced” this is shaping up to be looking like quite the event!! This is taking place from May 10th through the 12th at a Mansion in Virden. Music going on at the event is described as “EDM / Hip Hop / Rock / Dance / Funk / Future / Glitch”. There are too many performers to list off all here on this post, but you can see everyone announced so far in that flier above. We got a track by one of the top acts, “Blastfome” on the player streaming below. Oh, and there’s camping???

There is a facebook event up for this Mansion Musicfest, which you can find right here. You can also follow their facebook page to stay updated on announcements and going-ons with the festival. Links to tickets for the festival are also available on the facebook event. We’ll be sure to make another post once the full lineup is announced.

Tomorrow… at none other than Rock N’ Roll Hardee’s we are all fortunate enough to have the opportunity to heal. That’s right, and we get to come out and enjoy classic acts that we all know and love… like Elvis, and Nighthawk, and The Beatles. All on the Hardee’s stage. There’s quite a wide range of acts going all day starting with Bob Bartel’s Beatles Yellow Submarine before 11:00 am, and then Purple Startdust (Queen/Prince tribute) at 10:00 pm. You can check out the poster above for a full list of acts and set times.

All of this is going on all day at Rock N’ Roll Hardee’s tomorrow (2501 Stevenson Drive), and the event is free. Check out a facebook event for this one right here. We also have Bruce Williams coming in to talk to us about this event on The Black Sheep Radio Show today from 4-6pm!

We are taking part in something a little bit different than our usual show today! Bourbon Street Rhythm & Ribs are setting up Southtown Blues Festival where a good portion of 11th and Brown Streets have been blocked off for a weekend full of music, food and games. Black Sheep is lucky to be working with Bourbon Street this year in setting up our own showcase happening today at 1:30 pm.

Who’s playing? Well, we have the return of Chuck Mountain (or F///\\\M) for short, (you might also know him as Big Baby, B-Dawg, Brandad, etc). We also have a newer Springfield project called Imaginary Colours which performed at our last open mic this past weekend. Stream some of Imaginary Colour’s music on the player below. Up before that is the hip hop project of Jim Whitehead called Animals With Human Names. There will plenty of dancing to be done for that. And don’t forget the last special act we have lined up for this – Nighthawk himself! That’s right.

Our showcase starts at 1:30 pm and the festival goes on all the rest of today and tomorrow. Check out more info on the whole festival right here. And find an event for our showcase right here. By the way, the entire festival is FREE for the whole family. Also check out our upcoming shows page for a look at what else we have coming up at Black Sheep for the remainder of the summer.

What’s going on here? Well, the weekend of August 4th and 5th our neighbors across the street at Bourbon Street Rhythm & Ribs are setting up the next Southtown Blues Festival where a good portion of 11th and Brown Streets will be blocked off for a weekend full of music, food and games, and even a parade at some point. Black Sheep is lucky to be working with Bourbon Street this year in setting up our own showcase as part of the festival at 1:30 pm, Saturday August 4th on a stage set up directly in front of our building.

Who’s playing? Well, we have the return of Chuck Mountain (or F///\\\M) for short, (you might also know him as Big Baby, B-Dawg, Brandad, etc). We also have a newer Springfield project called Imaginary Colours which performed at our last open mic this past weekend. Stream some of Imaginary Colour’s music on the player below. Up before that is the hip hop project of Jim Whitehead called Animals With Human Names. There will plenty of dancing to be done for that. And don’t forget the last special act we have lined up for this – Nighthawk himself! That’s right.

Our showcase starts at 1:30 pm on Saturday, August 4th but the festival goes on all weekend. Check out more info on the whole festival right here. And find an event for our showcase right here. By the way, the entire festival is FREE for the whole family. Also check out our upcoming shows page for a look at what else we have coming up at Black Sheep for the remainder of the summer.

One of downtown Springfield’s music festivals – Legacy of Giving Music Festival is happening this weekend next to the Old State Capitol and a few other various locations downtown. This will be L.O.G. Fest’s second year after taking the place of SOHO Music Festival last year. This year there are sixty bands performing over the course of two days, and proceeds go to various charities.

There are too many bands for us to list out the lineup, but you can see a nice breakdown of which bands are playing which locations at what exact times right here on their facebook for tonight and here for tomorrow night. Actually, you know what, we’ll post that schedule below. This event is all ages, and admission is only $5. If you are going to be at L.O.G. festival and would like to help us flier for Dumb Fest, get in touch! For more info on Legacy of Giving, check out their website right here.