Find FUN Things To Do In Illinois And Iowa With The Weekly FUN10!
It’s Sunday, and QuadCities.com proudly presents Fun10, a list of the top 10 things to do in the Quad Cities this week, and every week!
Painting Parties, Cake At RIBCO, Spicy Comedy And More In This Week’s FUN10!Every Sunday, we drop a new Fun10, to give you a head start on your week and a heads up on what’s going on over the coming seven days. Check out Fun10 every Sunday for the details on ten awesome events happening around town. It’s a cool read, and a great way to get started planning your entertainment for the week.
FUN10 — ten ways for you to have fun in the Quad-Cities, this week and every week, running every Sunday, only on your site for fun, free, local entertainment, QuadCities.com!
So what’s on the Fun10 for this week? Read on…
Red, White, And Boom Returns TODAY!
The annual bi-state Red, White and Boom in downtown Davenport and Rock Island returns this year TODAY, July 3, 2022. Family-friendly activities will take place throughout the day in Davenport and Rock Island. At 9:30 p.m. fireworks will be shot, in sync to music broadcast on 97X, from two barges in the middle of the Mississippi River.
Spectators can watch from free viewing areas along the Davenport riverfront including LeClaire Park, Quinlan Court, Centennial Park and Bechtel Park, or from Schwiebert Riverfront Park in downtown Rock Island. Bring your own lawn chair.
There will be plenty of activities on both sides of the river for families to enjoy ahead of the fireworks display. Food and beverages will be available for purchase.
LeClaire Park: Identity Crisis, a 12-piece classic rock band, will take the LeClaire Park bandshell stage for a free performance from 6-9:30 p.m. Davenport Park and Recreation kids zone activities include yard games, bounce houses, a NASCAR simulator, a misting station and more from 6-9 p.m. Magician David Casas will perform live 15-minute shows on the hour from 6-8 p.m. Food trucks will be stationed on Beiderbecke Drive with BBQ, funnel cakes, ice cream, brats, walking tacos and kettle corn and much more.
Quinlan Court: Located at the corner of River Drive and Brady Street, the Red, White and Bags! double-elimination tournament will be open to teams of two (age 18+) and take place 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. Enjoy a beer from Front Street Brewery, live music and food trucks.
Freight House Farmers’ Market: From 10 a.m.-2 p.m., check out favorite local vendors selling freshly grown vegetables to homemade treats. In the parking lot, enjoy Iowa’s History on the Move Mobile Museum from 10 a.m.-9 p.m., a free exhibit focused on Iowa people and places.
Modern Woodmen Park: River Bandits vs. the Peoria Chiefs. Game starts at 6 p.m.
Rock Island
Schwiebert Riverfront Park: DJ Jeff James will provide live music from 5-7 p.m. Class of ‘82, an ‘80s tribute band, begins at 7 p.m. Kids activities will include face-painting and balloon animals, as well as glow merchandise for sale. Bent River Brewing Co. will host a beer garden and a wide variety of food vendors will be on hand.
In Davenport, spectators are encouraged to park north of River Drive. Parking will be free in city parking ramps in downtown Davenport from 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Be aware of street closures along the riverfront area. In Rock Island, parking on the street and in the city ramp is free except for reserved spaces in the parking ramp.
Bettendorf Outdoor Concert Series Offers Great Tunes
The Bettendorf Public Library’s wildly popular Summer Concert Series is back from its hiatus and is returning to Faye’s Field on Thursday nights at 6:30 PM.
Faye’s Field is located just south of the Library on 18th St in Bettendorf.
These free concerts will take place every Thursday from June 2nd through August 11th and will be held come rain, shine or oppressive heat.
In case of inclement weather, the backup location will be inside the Library at 2950 Learning Campus Dr. in the Bettendorf Room.
Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets and are welcome to bring food and drinks to enjoy during the event.
The Summer Concert Series is funded by the Bettendorf Public Library Foundation.
The Velies
This year’s concert line-up includes:
July 7: The Velies
July 14: Crooked Cactus Band
July 21: Avey Grows Band
July 28: Class of ‘82
August 4: David G. Smith
August 11: Soul Storm
ABOUT the Bettendorf Public Library Information Center: Located at 2950 Learning Campus Drive, Bettendorf, Iowa 52722, the Library’s mission is “Committed to providing access to information and ideas for all.” For more information, visit www.bettendorflibrary.com or call 563-344-4175.
‘Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ Concludes At Countryside TODAY
Countryside Community Theatre Proudly presents “Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat!” The final show is today.
“Sha la la, Joseph, you’re doing fine! You and your dreamcoat, ahead of your time!” One of the most enduring shows of all time, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” is a reimagining of the Biblical story of Joseph, his father Jacob, eleven brothers and the coat of many colors.
Told entirely through song with the help of a main character Narrator, the musical follows preferred son Joseph. After being sold into slavery by his brothers, he ingratiates himself with Egyptian noble Potiphar, but ends up in jail after refusing the amorous advances of Potiphar’s wife. While imprisoned, Joseph discovers his ability to interpret dreams, and he soon finds himself in front of the mighty but troubled, Elvis-inspired, Pharaoh. Joseph’s solution to Egypt’s famine elevates him to Pharaoh’s right-hand man and reunites him with his family.
The magical musical is full of catchy songs in a variety of styles, from a parody of French ballads (“Those Canaan Days”), to country-western (“One More Angel in Heaven”) and calypso (“Benjamin Calypso”), along with the unforgettable classics “Any Dream Will Do” and “Close Every Door.”
Tickets available at: https://ccteldridge.booktix.com/
Check Out The Quad-Cities Latest Outdoor Music Venue
Free music from local artists will rock Davenport’s newest riverfront venue, Quinlan Court every Thursday!
Front Street Brewery and local food trucks will be onsite for food and beverage purchases.
Food trucks and beverages at 6:00 p.m. with music starting at 7:00 p.m.
Learn more here: davenportiowa.com/riverfront
Featured artists upcoming include:
July 7 | Dani Lynn Howe
July 14 | Frankie Joe
July 21 | The Tailfins
July 28 | Sam Day
August 4 | Totes McGotes
August 11 | The Velies
August 18 | Jef Spradley
August 25 | Barley House Band
September 1 | MVBS w/John Resch & Doggin’ Out
September 8 | Lewis Knudsen
September 15 | Mo&Co
September 22 | FlatTop
September 29 | TBD
River Music Experience’s Live At 5 Rolls Out All Summer
It’s that time of year, the 2022 season of Live@Five is taking place in Davenport’s RME Courtyard Fridays at 5pm for FREE live music.
7/8 – Piso’s Cure
sponsored by Winstein, Kavensky & Cunningham LLC
7/15 – Soul Storm
sponsored by MidAmerican Energy
7/22 – Jumbies
sponsored by IH Mississippi Valley Credit Union
7/29 – The Dawn
sponsored by Dahl Ford
8/5 – Matt Fuller Band
sponsored by QC Foot & Ankle Associates
8/12 – Funk Sauce Brass Band
sponsored by Downtown Davenport Partnership
8/19 – Diplomats of Solid Sound
sponsored by The Echo
8/26 – Beaker Brothers
sponsored by Nelson Brothers Agency & West Bend Mutual
9/2 – Crooked Cactus
sponsored by Pierce’s Promise
9/9 – Blues Rock-It
sponsored by Lobo’s Salsa
9/16 – Flash In A Pan
sponsored by Wind Dancer Boutique
9/23 – Jordan Danielsen Band
sponsored by The Planning Center
9/30 – Orangadang
sponsored by Zeke’s Island Cafe
Check Out The Summer Outdoor Concerts At Bass St Landing
With summer comes the sound of live outdoor music in our downtowns!
Enjoy this free summer concert series every Thursday night through August 11th in Downtown Moline!
Moline Centre’s Thursday Night Summer Concert Series takes place from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on the Plaza at Bass Street Landing.
All you need to bring is a lawn chair!
There will be food and beverages are available for purchase but no outside food or beverages allowed.
Make Mercado A Regular Friday Stop All Summer
Moline’s Mercado On Fifth is back!
Bringing Back Mexican Cuisine, Culture And More Fridays through Sept. 10 from 5 to 10 p.m. at 432 12th Street in Moline, everyone can get the weekend started right with Mercado! There will be a variety of children’s activities, delicious Mexican cuisine, and unique retail stands selling everything from jewelry to hand-sewn blouses and imported ceramics.
Mercado on Fifth is not just a market; it serves as a resource and catalyst for aspiring entrepreneurs. The weekly events bring Quad Citizens together to celebrate culture and community in an inclusive way. Educational programming at Mercado provides enrichment hours for children, and free nonprofit booth space gets helpful information to adults.
Mercado was founded in 2016 by Maria Ontiveros and her grandfather, Bob Ontiveros.
By addressing the specific needs of small businesses in the area, Mercado on Fifth and its partners have helped create and/or provide a platform for 30 new minority-owned businesses in the Quad Cities region. Most vendors have taken advantage of our free small business workshops (in Spanish and English) in partnership with the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Western Illinois University (SBDC). Through the management of the SBDC, we also started a micro-grant program for minority entrepreneurs to purchase equipment for their businesses. Over the past two years, Mercado founder Bob Ontiveros has given away over $62,000 to over 40 minority-owned businesses to purchase anything from food warmers to an industrial sewing machine.
Black Hawk College, another valued partner, also began offering the Food Sanitation Management class in Spanish at the request of Mercado leadership. Previously, Spanish speakers interested in becoming a kitchen manager or starting a food business had to drive to Chicago to take the class. Finally, Mercado on Fifth supported the creation of a commercial kitchen located within St. John’s Lutheran Church just blocks away from the Moline event space, thus completing the entrepreneurial eco-system. Mercado vendors and other small businesses now rent the kitchen for a small hourly fee.
Go ahead and block out your Fridays because Mercado On Fifth is where you are going to want to be this summer.
Mockingbird On Main Debuts New Show This Week
Two old friends want what the other has: wealth or love. Both are pretending to be someone they’re not. That’s the premise of The Mockingbird On Main’s next premiere – Alexander Richardson’s Your Better Self – opening July 8.
The Mockingbird on Main, an arts incubator dedicated to the presentation of new works, is thrilled to be bringing yet another world premiere to Downtown Davenport.
Richardson’s new play deals with the wealthy Zenola Goodrich who feels lacking in the love department, and Antoinette Caldwell who married for love and lives in poverty. After a chance encounter, these two old friends catch up and realize they’re living the life the other wants. A photoshoot scheduled as a favor will upend both of their lives and send them in search of their better selves. Funny and thought-provoking, this new play revitalizes an old classic and asks the question: who is the best version of you?
“I’m constantly reading older plays and novels in search of the forgotten. Many classic plays live long lives- Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and Chekov all continue to draw artists and audience alike. But many plays, many stories, fall through the cracks of history,” playwright
Alexander Richardson said. “Alice Gerstenberg’s Overtones, originally written in 1915, is one of these stories.”
Mockingbird on Main is a new theater opening in downtown Davenport where QuadCities.com will be sponsoring new shows.
“In the early 20th century there was an explosion of theatre as regional and community theaters sprung up across America- what’s fascinating is that in a time where women still did not have the right to vote, community theaters were run largely by and for women and Overtones is one of the relics of this movement,” he added.
Richardson continued, “At a time when this was a radical concept, Gerstenberg wrote a play showing women having interior lives and thoughts; More than being a hostess, mother, or wife, women were people first.” He added, “The way she illustrated this point was by having two sets of women on stage, portraying only two characters and while it’s now relatively common to have one actor playing multiple roles, I can’t recall any shows (other than Overtones) that required multiple actors to play one role.”
“When I finished reading it the first time I said, ‘where’s the rest of it? This is really fun, there should be more of it.’ And unprompted, the rest of the play came to me in the span of a weekend,” Richardson said.
Your Better Self is being directed by Cynthia Taylor and produced and designed by Mockingbird co-founders Tristan Tapscott and Savannah Strandin. The cast will be announced soon.
Your Better Self will play the intimate Downtown Davenport venue July 8, 9, 15 and 16 at 8pm with doors opening at 7:30pm. The Mockingbird on Main is now a Pay What You Can venue and guests pay via cash or Venmo at the door. For further details, guests can visit TheMockingbirdOnMain.com.
LA Guns, Faster Pussycat, Rocking The Rust Belt
L.A. Guns & Faster Pussycat will rock The Rust Belt July 10!
Want tickets? Click HERE!
L.A. Guns
L.A. Guns never looked like the pretty poster boys that so many of their peers did, but more the band that you would be terrified to bump into in an alley as they would likely be carrying switchblades and ready for a fight. But despite having many songs to back up that image, the band could also write powerful ballads (see the smash hit, “The Ballad Of Jayne” for Exhibit A of this argument) that showed there were some serious songwriting chops in the band. Those chops are on full display on the band’s two most recent studio albums and the upcoming new album, “Checkered Past,” arguably one of the most vital and exciting releases in the band’s catalog.
L.A. Guns was formed in 1983 by guitar player Tracii Guns and, then unknown singer, Axl Rose on lead vocals. The Classic Lineup of Guns, former Girl singer Phil Lewis, Steve, Kelly & Mick, have sold 6 1/2 million records, including 1988’s L.A. Guns and 1990’s Cocked and Loaded, both of which were certified Gold. Cocked and Loaded contained the hit single “Ballad of Jayne” that went to #33 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and #25 on the Mainstream Rock charts.
Following their successful performance at SiriusXM’s HairNation Festival in May of 2016, L.A. Guns went into the studio to record the critically acclaimed, The Missing Peace, the highest selling release for Frontiers Music in 2017. Their 12th release, The Devil You Know, released 2019 to the same critical acclaim. Their new album Checkered Past was released in November 2021.
Since reuniting, Tracii and Phil continue to tour around the world with L.A. Guns which includes Shane Fitzgibbon (drums), Johnny Martin (bass) and Ace Von Johnson (guitar).
Faster Pussycat
Faster Pussycat rose from the depths of the mid-‘80s Hollywood rock scene, taking the Sunset Strip by storm with a sound that wasn’t glam and wasn’t punk, but blistered somewhere in between. With an attitude and swagger all its own, their self-titled debut featured the instant classics “Babylon,” “Bathroom Wall,” “Cathouse” and “Don’t Change That Song,” and its follow-up ‘Wake Me When It’s Over’ climbed even higher with the radio hit “House Of Pain,” “Poison Ivy” and “Where There’s A Whip There’s A Way.”
Despite their successes, Faster defied the mainstream mold and always followed front man Taime Downe’s underground sensibilities. The gold and platinum records are nice, but Taime considers his greatest accomplishment to be longevity. “The only number that really matters to me is the number 35. Three and half decades later, Faster Pussycat are still rocking, and it feels as fresh as it did in 1986.” Look no further than their 2021 releases “Nola” and the Johnny Thunders cover “Pirate Love” – Faster Pussycat are as virile and tenacious as ever… and won’t have it any other way.
Yoga In The Park
The Davenport Public Library will be holding Yoga and Stories Fridays in June |Vander Veer Park at 10am.
This summer the library is bringing yoga and stories to Vander Veer Park! Bring your yoga mat or a towel and join us near the playground. Afterwards we’ll have a fun craft and selected items available for check out from the OWL (Outreach Wheeled Library). Best for ages 4-10.
This program will be held outdoors. In the case of inclement weather, it will be in the canceled.
Learn more, by visiting:https://davenportlibrary.libcal.com/event/9105674.
