Family-oriented street festivals are typically not the place to look for an exceptionally good musical performance. Maybe some washed up nostalgia, but bands who plays these kinds of gigs are usually just in it for the money, and not much more. Not that last year’s headliner Eddie Money was anything to scoff at, but Urbana Sweetcorn Festival has outdone itself this year with the musical lineup, proving an outlier when it comes to C-U street fest tunes.
Split into three stages, all bases are covered. The Main Stage boasts the likes of The Psychedelic Furs, The Church and Berlin, the One Community Together Stage gives a taste of local music to anyone coming from out of town with local high school marching bands and local groups like Tara Terra, and the Folk and Roots stage features, obviously, more folk-oriented local music, like Bones Jugs N Harmony, Rebecca Rego and a festival-stage version of Rose Bowl Tavern’s regular hootenanny.
Take a peek at that lineup. If the idea of Sweetcorn Festival excites you about as much as Maggie Hockenberry, you either hate corn and butter (who do you think you are?) or you’ve probably just forgotten the melody to the chorus of “Under The Milky Way” and/or “Pretty In Pink.” For your listening pleasure, here is a primer playlist for the weekend to help you remember the 80s and get ready to eat corn.
Berlin — “Take My Breath Away”
Sun Stereo — “Better Than Yesterday”
The Psychedelic Furs — “Love My Way”
Tigerbeat — “Rantoul”
Oshwa — “Genie”
The Church — “Under The Milky Way”
Rebecca Rego & Kenna Mae — “I Wish I Was Missing You More”