Cheap Trick, the Beach Boys, UB40 and a host of tribute bands are among the groups that will be performing this summer at RiverEdge Park in Aurora, officials with the park announced Monday.
RiverEdge Park, at 360 N. Broadway in downtown Aurora, is reopening this summer after being closed in 2025 for renovations.
According to a press release from the venue, the lineup for the summer includes the Blues on the Fox Festival featuring Trombone Shorty and Ally Venable on June 20, Cheap Trick on June 25, Aurora’s fireworks celebration on July 3, Lauren Alaina on July 5, Sixteen Candles on July 17, Get the Led Out on July 18, Hollywood Nights: The Bob Seger Experience on July 31, ’90s Pop Nation on Aug. 8, UB40 featuring Ali Campbell on Aug. 9, Gov’t Mule on Aug. 13, the Beach Boys on Aug. 14, Poi Dog Pondering on Aug. 15, Totally Tubular Festival on Aug. 16, the Australian Pink Floyd show on Aug. 21 and Stayin’ Alive on Aug. 29.
Tickets for most of the shows are now on sale. For tickets and information, go to riveredgeaurora.com, call 630-896-6666 or stop by RiverEdge’s satellite box office at the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and until show time on show days.
Jim Jarvis, general manager for RiverEdge Park, said he has been receiving a deluge of comments and questions about the park and its status since it was closed for concerts last year.
“The expanded 16-station beverage pavilion, the 24 new women’s bathrooms and 18 new men’s bathrooms – those were all new things that we built when the park was shut down,” he said. “We also have three new family restrooms, and a new backstage artist pavilion. I run into people in the community all the time including two people at the gym this winter who know I emcee a lot of the concerts and told me they couldn’t wait to get back to RiverEdge Park.
“The thing that was really nice was that people said they missed coming to what they feel is their place,” Jarvis added.
The renovations have also expanded RiverEdge Park’s capacity from 6,000 to 7,500 for concerts, he said.
“You can come up and stand in front of the stage if you want to and then go back and sit in a chair somewhere and move back and forth,” Jarvis said. “You can’t do that at many venues. I tell people now, when you walk in it – RiverEdge felt like, you’re there for the show, it’s kind of a concert venue and the rest is a park. When you walk in now, you go, ‘Oh, this is a concert venue.’”
Jarvis said that two shows planned for the summer, a Pink Floyd tribute show and another with the Beach Boys, “are already half sold-out.”
“People are excited, people are ready to get out there and come to the park again,” he said.
Jarvis said RiverEdge’s “lineup is not complete yet. We still have offers out there and expect there will be three or four other shows we’ll be offering.”
Jarvis said booking bands is a little different now due to the improvements at RiverEdge Park.
“There were artists we never would have gotten because of our new artist building back stage,” he said. “We only had one legitimate dressing room at RiverEdge but now we have places for crews to eat and shower as well as the artists. We have all the things to accommodate these bigger artists.”
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David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.