The Park District of La Grange is bringing country music to town.
The first-ever, “Country Jam,” will be on Aug.10, at Gordon Park, in the northeast corner of the village.
“We wanted to create a signature summer event for the Park District,” Kevin Miller, director of recreation, said in a recent telephone interview. “With La Grange Endless Summer Fest ending, there was no Park District event that had live music and food vendors.”
“Trailer Park Twister,” will open the event, scheduled to play from 2-3:30 p.m. and the headline act, “Wildfire,” will take the stage from 5-8 p.m.
Miller noted that Country Jam would fill a niche left empty by the absence of the Endless Summer Fest, an annual end-of-summer event that was a partnership between the Park District and the La Grange Business Association. Endless Summer Fest ran from 2014 to 2023.
Miller pointed out that the Country Jam was really a revival of the Park District’s events of days gone by.
“We used to do an event before the Endless Summer Fest called Family Fest,” he said, “and we wanted to make sure that this was different from Endless Summer Fest. We wanted a distinct brand, so there is no confusion. So our staff came up with La Grange Country Jam.”
The choice of bands was a purposeful attempt to highlight the local area.
“We wanted to try and keep it as local as possible while also having bands that have a connection to the surrounding communities,” Miller said. “‘Trailer Park Twisters’ is a local band of La Grange that has performed at our events previously, so that was a good fit. ‘Wildfire’ was a band that we had reached out to that has a pretty good following in the Country Music scene in the Chicago suburbs.
Miller stressed that the event was one for the whole family.
“This is a great, family-friendly event. You get to have live music near downtown La Grange, you get to have local food vendors,” Miller said. “Monk’s Burgers and More, I know they no longer have a restaurant, but they have food trucks, so they will be coming out. We have Beach Avenue BBQ, Billy Bricks Wood Fired Pizza, and Taqueria Mi Taquito.”
Also on hand will be Milk Money Brewery, the first-ever brewery in La Grange and the exclusive beer provider of the event.
“They have created a Mexican lager called “Showstopper,” specifically for the event,” Miller said. “They’ll be providing it at the restaurant as well as at the event.”
Admission to the La Grange Park District’s Country Jam is free. Further information can be found at the Park District’s website, pdlg.org
“Trailer Park Tornado” and “Wildfire” both have their own FaceBook pages.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.