Fogelberg Foundation of Peoria
Fogelberg Foundation of Peoria is excited to announce the plans and events for our upcoming Dan Fogelberg Celebration Weekend 2024! Thank you to everyone for your patience as we have worked toward finalizing these details, we hope that you will be as excited as we are. Tickets link is at the bottom of this page! More special guests and events may be added as our Celebration Weekend gets closer! New event merchandise available HERE!
Fogelberg Foundation of Peoria has partnered with the Peoria Riverfront Museum to co-host the majority of our events! Peoria Riverfront Museum is quickly becoming nationally known as the best multi-disciplinary museum of it's kind in the country, and we are thrilled to make this wonderful facility the home base of this year's Celebration Weekend!
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Fogelberg Foundation of Peoria has chosen two worthy charitable causes as the financial benefactors of this year's Celebration Weekend. The first is the Golden Voice Endowment Fund in honor of the Golden Voice Recording Company, a recording studio that was once located in South Pekin, IL where Dan recorded many times. This fund has been set up by Peoria Riverfront Museum to support their current Golden Voice tribute wall exhibit, with the funds being used to make this exhibit a permanent part of the museum's future.
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Our second charitable cause is Peoria Instrument Project, a local 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is dedicated to supporting both public and private school music programs in the greater Peoria area. From financial support given to budget-strapped schools, to low-cost/no-cost instruments and/or instrument repair, to workshops that help educators through continuing education at reduced costs, Peoria Instrument Project is striving to help students that have a passion to learn music be certain that they have all the resources that they need. What better place than Peoria, IL to being supporting the Leader of the Band? For more information about Peoria Instrument Project, please visit their website at www.PeoriaInstrumentProject.org.
Event Itinerary
Friday, August 9, 2024
Bomar and Ritter
On Friday, August 9th from 7:30 to 10:30 pm, Fogelberg Foundation of Peoria presents our Friday Night Welcome Party at the Peoria Riverfront Museum! We are very excited to welcome back our special friends, Bomar and Ritter, as they perform their special Dan Fogelberg tribute show. Mary and Bob have provided some of the most memorable performances of our past events, and we are thrilled to have them back. Special guests of honor at this year's Friday Night Welcome Party will be Jerry and Mary Ann Milam of Golden Voice Recording Company to meet and greet fans and share stories of Dan and his early recording career. This casual event is a great way to kick off the weekend by singing along to all of you favorite Fogelberg songs and meeting friends, old and new!
Saturday, August 10, 2024
Our planned schedule of events for Saturday, August 10th will all take place at Peoria Riverfront Museum. We have purposely left the morning schedule relatively open so that attendees have free time to visit the current Dan Fogelberg Memorial in Riverfront Park, take the self-guided Peoria tour that is available through this website, or to have time to enjoy the current exhibits offered at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. A very special Dan Fogelberg memorabilia display will be available at the museum throughout the day, brought to you courtesy of Dianne Turner! For those that are interested, a Sundeck Sing Along will be held at the museum from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, weather permitting.
At 2:00 pm, we will be offering a very special showing of Greetings From The West in the museum's Giant Screen Theater! While most fans are likely very familiar with this video, the experience of seeing it on one of the largest projection screens in the country is a special one. Sit alongside friends and fellow fans and sing along to your hearts content. Seating is a bit limited in the theater, so a second showing will be offered at 4:30 PM.
At approximately 4:00 pm, we want to gather all attendees for a group photo at a location around the museum that will be announced at a later date. We were originally planning to have the Dan Fogelberg mural onsite at the museum, but it has been determined that the mural is too fragile to move from its current location. Big Picture Peoria has agreed to allow us to include an image of the mural in our group photo via Photoshop, so it will be added to our image after the fact. Come one and all to be a part of this fun experience. Everyone attending will receive the official final image file via email sometime after the end of the weekend.
Peter Berkow
Robert McEntee
Mark Andes
At 7:00 pm, Fogelberg Foundation of Peoria invites you to attend a very special FFoP Dessert Reception to bring fans closer to two very important individuals from Dan's career! Our reception will take place in the Giant Screen Theater at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
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Our first guest is Peter Berkow, who will be appearing via video-conference from California. Peter has had a very successful career as a music and television producer, journalist, and educator, but started his career on the campus of the University of Illinois and was the talent manager for The Red Herring coffee house where Dan performed quite often. Peter had the unique experience of hiring Dan and seeing him perform early in his career, as well as being involved with Dan's earliest solo recordings.
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Our guests of honor appearing in person will be two extraordinary musicians and fan-favorite members of Dan's touring band, Robert McEntee and Mark Andes! Both of these gentlemen first met Dan in Colorado in 1974, around the time that Dan was prepping, recording and releasing Souvenirs. It would be many years later, but each spent time performing with Dan during the 1990's and early 2000's. Robert McEntee logged 9 tours with Dan during his tenure with Dan's band, and also appears on the River of Souls and Greetings From The West albums. Both Robert and Mark look forward to sharing some stories about their experiences working with Dan, and are pleased to be returning to Peoria to honor their old friend.
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Our reception will also feature an update on future plans for Fogelberg Foundation of Peoria, as well as an informative presentation from Peoria Instrument Project.
Sheldon Felich
Jay Hennessey
From 8:30 to 10:30 pm, our day of events continues with a very special tribute concert honoring the 50th anniversary of the release of Dan's album, Souvenirs! Featuring Fogelberg tribute artists Sheldon Felich and Jay Hennessey, along with a full band of guest musicians, this performance will no doubt be the perfect ending to a long day of honoring Dan Fogelberg and his musical legacy. Both of these gentleman have long been favorites at our events, and we are honored to again have them in Peoria. Additionally, we will have one or two items on hand to auction or raffle off from acclaimed photographer, Henry Diltz, in honor of 50 years of Souvenirs!
From 11:00 pm to 1:00 am (or 2:00 am, maybe 3:00 am!) please join Fogelberg Foundation of Peoria for an After Party Sing-a-long! In the grand tradition of past FFoP tribute concert after parties that tend to spontaneously happen each year, and by the request of many that are planning to bring their guitars to Peoria, we've decided to cap off the evening with one more chance to sit and sing Fogelberg songs into the wee hours of the morning! This event will be held at Peoria Marriott Pere Marquette, with the specific ballroom being named at a later date. Cash bar provided, no outside food or beverage allowed. (Sorry folks, those are the rules!)
Sunday, August 11, 2024
Please join us at 11:00 am at Forest Park Nature Center as we dedicate the new addition to the Dan Fogelberg Memorial. A series of new boulders has been commissioned by Fogelberg Foundation of Peoria to honor Dan in a setting that is sure to become as significant to fans as the original Riverfront Park memorial is. More details about this specific event will be forthcoming here as our events grow closer, so please check back.
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Following our dedication ceremony for the new memorial, we will also be holding a short ceremony to honor Tamara Schaidle who passed away unexpectedly in March of 2023. Tamara was a local Dan Fogelberg fan and one of our Foundation's most loyal supporters. We encourage anyone that knew Tamara to join us as we share a time of remembrance for our dear friend.
Thank you again for your patience as we have been finalizing the details of our Dan Fogelberg Celebration Weekend!
We think that we have put together a memorable experience for all Fogelberg fans, and we hope that you will join us in Peoria in August. More information will be added shortly, and we are looking forward to seeing you soon!
TICKETS!
Click the blue box on the left to be taken to our event ticketing page. If you are planning to attend all of the events during our Celebration Weekend, be sure to check out the ALL ACCESS PASS options that include a Limited Edition Event Laminate that allows you to attend everything all weekend at a discount!
EVENT RESOURCES
Restaurants
Event Itinerary
