The Venue, a live music performance room in downtown Aurora, will host two outdoor music festivals in July.
The facility, run by the nonprofit Fox Valley Music Foundation, will host The Acoustic Summit on July 12 and Summer Jam on July 26 at Mundy Park, which is adjacent to The Venue.
The Acoustic Summit will begin at 8 p.m. on Friday, July 12. It is a new summer festival hosted by The Venue and will feature bluegrass group Wheels North along with bluegrass trio Anderlik Otto, and Church, and singer-songwriter Pete Jive.
The festival will highlight Americana, bluegrass, roots and folk music, organizers said.
The Summer Jam will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 26.
For the second year, Summer Jam at The Venue will celebrate the famous Summer Jam at Watkins Glen in New York which took place on July 28, 1973, and brought together the Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band and The Band.
Peach Jam, along with Cream Puff Warriors, a Grateful Dead cover band out of Chicago, will headline the evening starting with the bands coming together for a set of tunes from The Band.
Doors open for all shows one hour before showtime. The Venue, at 21 S. Broadway in downtown Aurora, offers a selection of craft beer and other beverages at the bar which is open for all shows.
Shows are all ages and general admission. Performances will move indoors if there is inclement weather, organizers said.
For tickets and additional show information, go to themusicvenue.org.
Batavia Public Library getting rid of most fines
The Batavia Public Library will become a fine-free library for most items on July 1, officials said.
No fines will be charged when books and materials are overdue at the library at 10 S. Batavia Ave. in Batavia. Instead, once items are overdue by 21 days, the patron’s library card will be blocked so they cannot check out additional materials, library officials said in a press release
As soon as the overdue item is returned, the block will be removed and the card restored.
“It will have a positive impact on the library,” Batavia Public Library Executive Director Josephine Tucci said in the release. “Oftentimes when patrons owe a lot of fines on their cards, they choose not to even come into the library. We don’t want to prevent people from using the library, we want to encourage them to use it.”
Of the 96 public libraries in the System Wide Automated Network consortium, to which Batavia Public Library belongs, 83% are fine-free, according to the release.
The revenue that Batavia Public Library receives from overdue fines is 0.17% to 0.22% of the library’s total annual revenue.
“That’s the ultimate goal: To receive the books back. We’re not here to make money off people,” Tucci said in the release. “They don’t have to worry, ‘can I afford this fine?’ We don’t want them to be embarrassed or frustrated by these overdue fines.”
Members of the library’s board voted unanimously on April 16 to eliminate the fines.
For more information, go to bataviapubliclibrary.org/library-card-information.
Donut Dash set for July 20
The Geneva Community Chest’s annual Donut Dash 5K is set for July 20, group officials said.
Participants will enjoy doughnuts at the finish line, with the event bringing in money for the Community Chest to distribute to 29 charities throughout the Fox Valley, event organizers said in a press release.
The State Bank of Geneva is sponsoring the Donut Dash, which features a 5K walk/run along the Fox River, a one-mile run for children 6 to 14 years old sponsored by Ivy Academy of Early Learning in Geneva and a Munchkin Fun Run for children 5 years old and younger, according to the release.
The ChronoTrack chip-timed, USA Track and Field-certified 5K run/walk will start at 7:30 a.m. July 20 at the Peg Bond Center, 151 Island Ave., in downtown Batavia. The one-mile competitive ChronoTrack-timed race will begin at 8:30 a.m. and the Munchkin Fun Run will begin at 8:45 a.m. to close out the morning.
The top three male and female finishers in all age groups will receive medals, organizers said. Awards also will be presented for best female and best male costumes and for the largest team.
For more information and to register, go to https://crm.enmotive.com/events/register/2024-donut-dash-5k-run-and-walk. Interested sponsors may go to http://supportgcc.org/.
For more on Geneva Community Chest, including the charities it funds, go to genevacommunitychest.org.
No more bake sales at Naperville Municipal Band summer concerts
Homemade baked goods will no longer be a feature at summertime band concerts, officials with the Naperville Municipal Band announced.
The weekly band concerts allowed various nonprofit organizations to raise funds by selling home-baked goods for several decades, but government rule changes made it difficult to host compliant bake sales, band officials said in a statement.
“We regret that this long-standing tradition needs to come to an end but the great music we share will continue on,” according to the statement, which encouraged audience members to bring their own food or patronize nearby restaurants and stores.
The band performs at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Aug. 15 at Central Park, 104 E. Benton Ave. The annual patriotic concert, featuring the “1812 Overture,” will be held Wednesday, July 3. There will be no concert on Thursday, July 4.
Concerts are free to attend. For more information, go to www.napervilleband.org.
Film ‘Green Fire’ to be shown
The city of Geneva’s Natural Resources Committee will host a showing of the film “Green Fire” followed by a group discussion fror 2 to 3:30 p.m Saturday, July 13, at the Geneva Public Library, 227 S. Seventh St.
The event is free and open to the public.
“Green Fire” explores the life of environmentalist Aldo Leopold. Leopold is considered the father of the national wilderness system, wildlife management and ecological restoration, according to a press release about the event in Geneva.
The Natural Resources Committee will lead a discussion after the film.
People interested in attending the presentation can register online with the Geneva Public Library at https://www.gpld.org/