The 65th annual Manchester Community Fair evening lineup promises to be a crowd-pleasing selection of music and entertainment variety.
“We tried to get as many new and fresh acts that we could find this year,” entertainment coordinator Ben Wotjas said. “We want to keep rotating the entertainment to keep things new.”
New to the fair this year include a Guitar Hero videogame contest sponsored by Best Buy, a pizza eating contest sponsored by Classic Pizza, as well as performances by local musician Jim Dokurno and Manchester Enterprise Editor Daniel Lai’s band Delirious Love.
“We’re pretty excited about the caliber of entertainment we managed to get for this year’s fair,” Wotjas said.
The Cottonwood Cloggers, a well-known dance group, will kick-off the entertainment at 8:30 p.m. July 7.
Led by Atticus Sumner, the group includes members from across the state of Michigan and performs an eclectic mix of blues, country, rock and roll, and jazz.
“During the show, you will see Atticus’ music in motion Atticus has inspired many people through his dance and audiences too will be able to experience this talent with a nationally recognized musical phenomenon,” the group states on their Web site.
Sumner and the Cottonwood Cloggers have appeared frequently on television, radio and in newspapers throughout the country. The group performed at the Fox Theater in Detroit, opened for the Grand Ole Opry with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, Ricky Skaggs, Holly Dunn, and the Bellamy Brothers.
The Cottonwood Cloggers have also performed at past fairs in Manchester as well as the Manchester Chicken Broil.
The Cloggers will also perform at 6 and 7 p.m. July 9 and 6 p.m. July 10 at the fair.
On July 9, the musical styling of Jim Dokurno will delight audiences beginning at 8 p.m. on the main stage. Based out of Marshall, Dokurno’s musical influences include ’90s grunge rock.
“He’s a super fantastic singer and songwriter and he will be performing a solo set of music,” Wotjas said.
After years of playing with rock bands, Dokurno has finally stepped out on his own to find his place in the music scene, releasing his first solo album in January 2005 (“The Finding My Voice Demos”).
“With music ranging from slow moody rock to ballads of love and anger, Dokurno finds the way to get straight to the point with few blurred lines in between,” Dokurno’s Web site states. “Overly honest lyrics about life and the stories with in it, take his songs to new heights. Thrashing his guitar to bring out the most angered tones and gently massaging it to bring out every ghostly note. Dokurno rounds it all off with a stage presence that is untouchable.”
Dokurno’s influences include: Nirvana, Sound Garden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone, The Verve Pipe, Papa Vegas, Sponge, Damien Rice, Foo Fighters, Colic, Jimmy Hendrix, The Beatles, and Led Zepplin.
On July 9, the Longneck Strangler Band takes to the stage at 8 p.m. The band takes a new and innovative approach to some of country music’s great songs. The Detroit-based band has performed at Cheli’s Chili Bar and The Dawghouse.
The band is self-described as Johnny Cash and Hank Williams meets AC/DC.
“If both their love of rock and roll and their being from Detroit may deny Longneck Strangler an invitation from the Grand Ol’ Opry, a quick inspection of Longneck Strangler in performance reveals qualities that rank them with any other country band on the market,” the band states on their Web site. “The singer switches between acoustic guitar and fiddle when he is not demonstrating his impeccable vocal delivery, the guitarist may sling a Gibson Flying V… but he does stop moving to work the steel guitar, the drummer knows when to keep four-on-the-floor (and when not to), and the bassist lays down the most solid two-feel this side of the Mason-Dixon Line while (occasionally) wearing a cowboy hat.
“These four musicians combine diverse but overlapping backgrounds into the Longneck Strangler sound, which, for the sake of simplicity, you could arguably label country.”
Rounding out this year’s musical lineup is Manchester Enterprise Editor Daniel Lai and the band Delirious Love. The band will perform from 5 to 7 p.m. July 11 on the main stage. Based in Taylor, Delirious Love is one of Michigan’s newest rock/pop band’s with a combined 12 years of experience. The band features the talents of six local musicians bringing the sights and sounds of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s alive in a stunning and intimate setting. The band carries audiences back to the sounds of Chuck Berry and the beginning of Rock & Roll era to the British invasion with The Beatles – as well as classic hits from Motown, Neil Diamond, Tom Petty and beyond.
Delirious Love has performed at the Manchester Oktoberfest, the Riverfolk Music & Arts Organization’s “Halloween with a Heart” fundraiser in 2008, The Quarter Bistro & Tavern in Ann Arbor, and other local venues throughout Southwest Michigan.
For a complete listing of this year’s activities and events at the fair, visit www.manchestermi.org/fair/
Daniel Lai can be reached at 428-8173 or dlai@heritage.com.
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