The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Rockin’ on the River ready for stage
Most shows cost $5; new menu for food, drinks
The Rockin’ on the River weekly concert series is ready to take the stage at Black River Landing.
The shows start May 26 with Absolute Journey Tribute with special guests Velvet Shake at Black River Landing, 421 Black River Lane, the Lorain Port Authority’s riverfront festival site.
“We’re raring to go, we’re raring to go,” said Bob Earley of Falls River Concerts, event chairman and creator of the concert series.
Spring and summer 2017 will kickoff the third season of musical acts in Lorain.
“We’ve stepped everything up,” Earley said.
There are 21 shows planned lasting through Sept. 2, when the band Hairball presents its “bombastic celebration of arena rock.”
Some aspects of the 2015
and 2016 events will carry over, and there will be a few new things for 2017, too, Earley said.
Tickets for all but two shows are $5. Hairball and the Pink Floyd tribute Wish You Were Here will have $10 advance admission and $15 at the gate.
Children 12 and younger are admitted free.
“This is just a good value,” Earley said.
Along with fair-style food, there will be vendors with new Mexican, German and Greek dishes.
“We’ve really stepped it up a notch from what it was last year,” Earley said about the dinner items.
Beer and wine will cost $4 per drink. There will be a new menu of mixed drinks this summer, which also will sell for $4 each.
“So, now we have something for everybody’s palate,” Earley said.
The alcohol sales serve as fundraisers for local nonprofit groups.
Due to the food vendors and drink sales available, guests will not be able to bring in outside food and beverages and there will be strict enforcement this year, Earley said.
Based on the quality of the music, the lighting and the sound from the stage, Rockin’ on the River is the best value in entertainment across northeast Ohio, he said.
NOPEC, the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council, has signed on as name sponsor for this year’s Rockin’ on the River series.
NOPEC is an electric power and natural gas aggregator and there will be special nights for leaders of its member communities, so the shows will bring some new people to Lorain, Earley said.
“We’re the only event like this they do in all of Ohio, so we’re very pleased,” he said about NOPEC.
The concert series has sold at least 450 season passes so far.
Discount price season passes are available online through May 20 and at the Port office, 421 Black River Lane, next week, up to the first show.
Lorain police will continue providing security at the event.
Rockin’ on the River has an excellent safety record, Earley said, and the organizers intend to keep it that way.
“The Police Department in Lorain, Ohio, deserves a lot credit for this,” he said. “They’re just a special group of people.”
There will be additional lighting for the public parking on the south end of the Black River Landing site.
Lorain Port Executive Director Tom Brown noted a landscaping crew will be out next week for the final manicure of the festival site before the music starts.
“It’s coming quick,” Brown said.
This summer, there will be a July 22 show with Cleveland band Beau Coup, famous for the single “Born & Raised on Rock-N-Roll.” And Cleveland’s Breakfast Club will be special guests.
On July 29, Rockin’ on the River will have a show with Atomic Punks – Tribute to Early Van Halen, and Wanted: The Bon Jovi Tribute Band.
There also will be some competition because Michael Stanley & The Resonators will play that night at the Lorain Palace Theater.
Stanley, a fixture in Cleveland’s rock scene, has played at Rockin’ on the River the last two years in “extremely successful” shows, Earley said.
He said he hoped to have Stanley back in 2017, but to do so, Rockin’ on the River would have to charge $20 to $25 for tickets.
“We said, no, we’re not charging that kind of money,” Earley said.