CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Moses Auto Group Live on the Levee returns to Charleston for a 14th year. From May 26 through Sept. 1, the city will provide free concerts on the Schoenbaum Stage at Haddad Riverfront Park every Friday night.
The 2017 lineup was announced Friday.
“We got 13 new first timers on the stage, 6 or 7 returning favorites from the local community and a ton of great headliners,” said Adam Harris, music chair for Live on the Levee.
Headliners during the 15-week event include Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., 10,000 Maniacs, Sundy Best and TUSK – The Ultimate Fleetwood Mac Tribute band.
Murphy, a Logan native and winner of “America’s Got Talent”, will play at the June 23 concert to mark the one year anniversary of the devastating floods. The storms claimed nearly two dozen lives and destroyed homes and businesses across West Virginia.
Last year, Murphy performed a special Fourth of July concert to raise money for flood victims.
“We built a stage on the (Kanawha) Boulevard because the Haddad Riverfront Park Schoenbaum Stage was under water, so it’s going to be pretty special to have Landau here on the one year anniversary when the stage was under water one year ago,” Harris said.
The event continues to increase in popularity each year because more national artist come to town, Harris said.
“Any time you get a national act that’s going to raise the profile of an event, we’ve continued to do that. I think that’s why we’ve seen as much growth as we have,” he said.
Harris said concerts also benefit the local economy during the summer months.
“This is the best thing a municipality can do for its residents is give them something to do on a Friday night,” he said. “They stick around after work or maybe they come down and enjoy the show and stay down in the bars afterward. I think it’s a huge economic driver and the impact is hard to measure.”
To view the 2017 lineup, CLICK HERE.
West Virginia Radio Corporation is one of the 44 Live on the Levee sponsors this year.