A free, outdoor music festival – with a name inspired by a piece of used furniture – returns to downtown Burlington on Saturday.
Jeff Poulter, live events program director for Burlington’s Capitol Theater, said the majority of the theater’s programming runs from September to May.
But back in 2017, they were looking to add a regular summer event.
“Some of us just sitting around, thought it would be nice to have an outdoor event with live music we could have the community at, and raise some funds so there’s some money coming in,” he said.
From the beginning, the Old Couch Music Festival has showcased local and regional Americana, folk, bluegrass, country, blues, and rock music – live on Third Street, outside of the Capitol Theater.
This year’s event features The Doors tribute band Wild Love, along with Eric Pettit Lion, Bluzillion, and Fretworks.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m., with the first act starting an hour later, and the final act scheduled for 9:30 p.m.
As for the festival’s name, Poulter can explain.
“We’ve had an old couch that was donated, it sits back in our green room, and we just made a decision to call it the Old Couch Music Festival,” he said.
That old couch gets pulled out onto Third Street for the event, and festival-goers are welcome to bring their own seating as well.
Tri States Public Radio produced this story. TSPR relies on financial support from our readers and listeners in order to provide coverage of the issues that matter to west central Illinois, southeast Iowa, and northeast Missouri. As someone who values the content created by TSPR's news department please consider making a financial contribution.
