Looks like we are getting our April showers in May, so look up and leave the rain dances at home as this weekend pours in with four area outdoor festivals presenting live music at the forefront of entertainment activities. Combine that with our regular listings of bar venues and we are indeed blessed with a blooming music scene.

Downtown is alive with the sound of music this weekend with the Old Capitol Art Fair and PrideFest both sporting solid entertainment schedules. The OCAF, now well over a half a century old, boasts a diverse lineup of the best and brightest crop of locals from 10 in the morning until about 4 in the afternoon both Saturday and Sunday. The stage is located over in front of The Alamo (bars make the best markers) on Fifth Street between Jefferson and Adams. In the same area, you’ll find food vendors and libations nearby. Artists from around the nation set up their wares in booths all around the Old State Capitol for you to gander, peruse and purchase.

PrideFest hangs out over on Capitol Street between Fourth and Sixth, with two stages of entertainment going all day long on Saturday. An incredible list of performers, including a set from local Rocky Horror Picture Show participants, makes for a wonderful way to celebrate togetherness and diversity. The Club Station House stage keeps the bands hopping while the Denney Jewelers area features more acoustic acts near the food vendors. Oh yes, don’t forget the Miss Abraham and Mary Lincoln impersonators roaming the streets. This is truly a Springfield event to be experienced by all.

If you’ve a hankering for trees and green stuff, two out of town, local festivals offer delightful alternatives to the streets of Springfield. Down Chatham way at the Community Park, the St. Andrew’s Society of Central Illinois hosts the 20th annual Highland Games and Celtic Festival with live music galore. Not only do Exorna, Four Leaf Rovers and the Whiskey Picts play the Big Top tent, but the dance and pipe band contests plus the incredible massed-bands experience all require music made by humans on the spot. Always lots of fun to be had at this event with some of the liveliest bunch of folks anywhere.

The other party in a park is out at the Spring Festival held on Saturday and Sunday at the Clayville Historic Site near Pleasant Plains on Route 125 (straight out Jefferson Street). The glory days of Clayville in the 70s and 80s are back with all day fun on the grounds including performances by The Whip Guy, music from The Blue Gs, Prairie Aires and Irwin & O’Hare and others. The updated and restored Broadwell Inn is a sight to see along with the other outbuildings, vendors, wandering entertainers and the like.

Now for a quick overview of the nightlife (“ain’t no good life”) at the bars. Homespun Republic (formerly Donnie’s Homespun) hosts three killer nights in a row with the Legendary Shack Shakers and NIL8 (acoustic) on Thursday, Mom’s Kitchen doing Widespread Panic on Friday and Comfortably Floyd on Saturday. Norb Andy’s presents live music every Friday night with this week’s guests coming from Pana by way of Chicago when Garret Burris & the Bathtub Hooch Band plays the basement club. On Saturday The Wolf and Gypsy Band rolls down from Pekin area to play some biker-friendly music at Guitars & Cadillacs Saloon on Peoria Road. I’m taking a night off from the Brewhaus on Sunday (whew!) when our friend from Nashville, Kris Bell, brings his feel-good, blues rock trio to the Raoul-watched stage.

There’s plenty to pick from, so go make a bouquet, my friends.

Contact Tom Irwin at [email protected].