Annual music festival, back and ready to rock

By Kyle Sutton

A hard rock band by the name of AC/DC once said these famous words. “For those about to rock, we salute you,” words quite fitting for the weekend that lies ahead.

The fourth annual Carbondale Rocks Revival Music Festival is  back  this weekend. The festival will run Thursday through Saturday at various locations in Carbondale.

The festival is organized by the Carbondale Music Coalition, a which showcases local music by partnering with artists, venues, businesses and people in the community.

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CMC president Curtis Conley said in an email last year was a huge success, and he expects the trend to continue.

“The third CRR blew away our expectations with most of the venues seeing max capacity crowds all weekend minus one or two disappointments,” he said.

Conley said as the years pass by, the CMC has focused on quality over quantity.

“If we book a show, we want it packed,” he said. “This year’s lineup is a huge step up for the CMC and early signs point to being the best one yet.”

This year’s festival will play host to more than 30 musical acts spread out across seven venues. Participating venues for this year include PK’s, The Grotto, Hangar 9, Fat Patties, The Cellar, Varsity Theater and Tres Hombres.

The festival will feature both local and national acts. Headliners this year include Lucero, Dex RomWeber, Nikki Hill, Amanda Shires, Charlie Parr, Tommy Womack and many more.

The first CRR festival was held in 2011. Co-founders, Conley and Matt Loungeville, created the festival with the mindset of holding a major music event to replace the Main Street Pig Out, an outdoor event no longer running.

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“Instead of putting the event outside we wanted to do an event that supported local businesses directly by putting the shows in the venues,” Conley said.

In February 2013, Conley, Dan Goett and John Huck founded the CMC.

Conley said the first priority on the agenda was to make the CRR festival the marquee event of each year.

The Buddy Rodgers Quartet will open the festival at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at The Grotto.

For more information on show times, artist bios and ticket information, visit

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