The Main Stage at the 43rd Annual Marion Popcorn will again feature three nights of free live entertainment, including a tribute to a legendary singer/songwriter Thursday evening, one of the Fresh faces of Country on Friday, and closing out Saturday with some Southern Rock tour warriors from Georgia on September 5-6-7, 2024 in downtown Marion, Ohio.
HARVEST – The Neil Young Electric & Acoustic Tribute, kicks off this year’s main stage headline entertainment on Thursday, September 5.
Presented by Buckeye Community School, HARVEST performs a tribute to classic Neil Young, from the dynamic vocal harmony and harmonica-driven acoustic stunners to the sizzling extended electric jams and stompers – covering Neil’s career from Buffalo Springfield, CSNY and solo to the modern Harvest Moon, with a particular focus on the early-to-mid ’70’s Neil solo and Crazy Horse era.
Since 1987, members Jim Tigue & Eroc Sosinski have been performing Neil Young music for fans all across the Midwest, in the bands Harvest and later Tie-Dye Harvest, the Jim & Eroc Duo, and eventually forming the acclaimed Pink Floyd concert act Wish You Were Here. Peter Telari (also of WYWH), Tim Hamman and Keith Chelm are veteran NE Ohio musicians as well. For 28 years, Sosinski was the late Michael Stanley’s primary bassist/vocalist, performing in concert at venues across the country and on many studio and live releases since 1993. HARVEST The Neil Young Electric & Acoustic Tribute is a professional musician’s personal homage and respectful salute that celebrates the timeless songwriting and genre-crossing artistry of Neil Young.
Main Stage entertainment starts at 6:00 on Thursday with local group Analog Youth, sponsored by Route 30 Harley-Davidson. Route 30 Harley-Davidson in Upper Sandusky offers new and preowned Harley-Davidson models, along with parts, clothing and an expert service department. Buckeye Community School has locations in Fremont, Mansfield, London and Marion, serving students ages 14-21 as an alternative to traditional high school.
For more information on Harvest, visit: https://www.facebook.com/harvestneiltribute.
For more information on Buckeye Community School, visit: www.buckeyecs.org.
For more information on Analog Youth, visit: https://www.facebook.com/AnalogYouth
For more information on Route 30 Harley-Davidson, visit: www.route30hd.com
DILLON CARMICHAEL will be taking the Main Stage Friday, September 6.
Chartbreaker and award winner Dillon Carmichael is a rising country music artist from Burgin, KY. You could even say country music is in his bloodline. He’s the nephew of John Michael Montgomery and also Eddie Montgomery of Montgomery Gentry, who performed at the Marion Popcorn Festival in 2021.
In December 2023, the Country Radio Seminar named Carmichael as one of their ‘New Faces’ for 2024. He landed on Artist To Watch lists from Billboard, Rolling Stone, Taste of Country, Pandora, and more, reached #2 at Country radio’s Most Added chart with his debut radio single, “Dancing Away With My Heart,” electrified festival crowds from CMA Fest to Dierks Bentley’s Seven Peaks, and earned tour dates with Lynyrd Skynyrd, Brooks & Dunn, Justin Moore, Dwight Yoakam, and Trace Adkins among others. 2024 Tour artists include Jon Pardi, Cody Johnson and Luke Bryan.
Adding to his already emerging career, Carmichael’s new Pardi-produced single, “Drinkin’ Problems,” is climbing the radio charts, and was the most added song for five consecutive weeks. It serves as an introduction into his deeply personal four-track project, “Where I Grew Up” that highlights his bluegrass roots, produced by Riser House Entertainment. Rolling Stone dubbed Carmichael as “country music’s most convincing young star since Stapleton.”
In October of 2021, Dillon Carmichael released his tear-jerking single, “Son of A.” The tune penned by Carmichael with Casey Beathard and Phil O’Donnell marked the emerging artist’s third single to radio in under five years after being signed to Sony-distributed Riser House Entertainment. It also inspired the name of his 2021 full-length album, which was later expanded as a deluxe project. Listeners were quick to draw a connection to the storyline as it pays tribute to loved ones who played an impactful role in your life. Also charting on this release was the single “Hot Beer.”
The New York Times compared Carmichael to Randy Travis in his previous album, “Hell On An Angel,” and said his rich baritone voice “moves with the heft and certainty of a tractor-trailer,” while NPR praised his “deep holler,” and Parade raved that “Carmichael defines pure country.”
For more info on Dillon Carmichael, visit: www.dilloncarmichael.com
JACKYL will wrap-up the mainstage entertainment on Saturday, September 7.
On August 11, 1992, Jackyl released their debut album on Geffen Records. It was the middle of Grunge, but Jackyl’s loud, proud and unapologetic rock songs, produced by Brendan O’Brien (Stone Temple Pilots, AC/DC), earned the LP double-platinum status. (And helped land the band a scene-stealing spot on Woodstock ’94.) Videos for the singles “The Lumberjack” (with Jesse James Dupree performing his iconic chainsaw solo), “I Stand Alone,” “Down On Me,” “Dirty Little Mind,” “When Will It Rain” and “Back Off Brother” earned rave reviews and rabid fans for the band’s no-holds-barred energy and lyrics.
On August 11, 2022—30 years to the day of Jackyl’s debut—the lineup played Sturgis, South Dakota’s Full Throttle Saloon, in a raucous celebration of the lineup’s 30th anniversary that also marks the debut of the quartet’s brand-new album, Jackyl 30 Coming In Hot and first single, “Get All Up In It.”
It’s a festival close to the band’s heart, and from 2009 – 2015 Dupree became one of the lead characters of the hit reality TV show Full Throttle Saloon. Of course, that didn’t stop Jackyl from touring and recording, and in 2010 the band released When Moonshine and Dynamite Collide, which featured DMC from Run-D.M.C.
It’s been three decades since Jackyl shot out of Georgia spewing equal parts hard rock, heavy metal and Southern rock. They’ve never stopped touring or recording, and with 10 million views (and growing) of “Lumberjack Song” on YouTube, the quartet are earning rabid new fans daily. The August 2022 release of Jackyl 30 Coming In Hot cements and furthers Jackyl’s no-holds-barred legacy. Or as Dupree, with his unquenchable energy, exclaims, “Thirty years on and we’re still celebrating the fundamentals of rock ‘n’ roll, so Get All Up In It!”
“Jeff, Chris and Roman coming down on the ‘one’ together is still a force of nature,” says Dupree. “Thirty years together and I feel we’ve found an honest place about our new music, our fans and us as a band, on and offstage.”
For more info on Jackyl, visit www.jackyl.com.
All headlining bands will perform at 8:30 PM, following 6:00 PM opening bands (Friday and Saturday to be announced later) and the recognition of sponsors during the festival’s Opening Ceremonies.
The 2024 dates of the Marion Popcorn Festival are September 5, 6 and 7. All performances on the Festival’s main stage are free of charge. A limited number of Kernel sponsorship seats are available for any of the Main Stage performances by calling 740-387-FEST.
Other festival events and activities include the Popcorn Parade on Thursday with over 300 units, a 5K Run, a Fine Arts show, crafts and vendors, a corn hole tournament, the Community Showcase Stage, a Poppin’ Party stage beer garden, a Popcorn Matinee musical performance at the historic Marion Palace Theatre, and much more.
