Hopkinsville’s Summer Salute has lined up two major musical acts — funk and soul band The Commodores and classic rock group Starship Featuring Mickey Thomas — for the downtown festival Friday, Aug. 25, and Saturday, Aug. 26.
Billed as two headliners, the bands will play free concerts in front of the Christian County Justice Center. Starship will play for the Friday concert, and The Commodores will follow on Saturday.
Organizers are planning the 2023 festival as the biggest one yet. Along with the addition of a second headliner act, there will be the addition of large screens beside the stage to “allow more prime viewing” for the festival audience.
This will be Parks and Recreation Superintendent Tab Brockman’s last year overseeing Summer Salute, the regional event he spearheaded to replace Little River Days and provide a backdrop for Hopkinsville’s epicenter status during the 2017 Solar Eclipse. Brockman is retiring right after the Summer Salute.
The Commodores and Starship were hitmakers beginning in the 1970s and ‘80s, respectively.
“Starship has an amazing collection of songs from their rich history and fans will be treated to hit after hit from Mickey Thomas and the band on opening night,” Brockman said in a press release.
Starship grew out of the band Jefferson Starship, which followed Jefferson Airplane. Thomas, now 73, spent most of the 1980s as lead singer for Starship. Some of the group’s most recognizable songs include “We Built This City,” “Sara” and “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.”
The Commodores, a Grammy-winning group established from two student groups at the Tuskegee Institute in the late 1960s, still features three early members — Walter “Clyde” Orange, James Dean “J.D.” Nicholas and William “WAK King.
Some of their biggest hits include “Brick House,” To Hot Ta Trot,” “Sail On” and “Three Times a Lady.”
Food and merchandise vendor spaces have already sold out, and there will be an expanded footprint for the festival space this year in the areas around the Justice Center, Founders Square and Little River Park on Bethel Street, organizers said. Parks and Recreation will release more details about the festival later.
The headliner last year was K.C. and the Sunshine Band. The 2021 headliner was Travis Tritt.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
