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Elgin Music Festival set for downtown April 9–11 with school showcase, multiple stages and headline acts
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Summary
City of Elgin Main Street Manager Christina Alvarez and festival director Quinn Walton say the third-annual Elgin Music Festival will run April 9–11, opening with a school showcase and featuring multiple downtown stages, vendor areas, busking spots and headline performers including Hardproof and Malford Milligan. Schedule and ticket details are posted on the festival website; some specifics (ticket prices, full schedule) were not specified in the interview.
Christina Alvarez, City of Elgin Main Street Manager, and Quinn Walton, director of the Elgin Music Festival, previewed the third annual downtown festival and asked residents to "mark April 9 through the eleventh on the calendar." The event will open with the Wildcat Showcase presented by the Elgin Independent School District and run across multiple downtown stages and venues through the weekend.
The festival will tie into the city's Music in the Park series, which runs on Fridays in April and May, and will feature a mix of local school performances, community bands and touring acts. Alvarez said the city was "excited to partner with you this year because it does bring a lot of people down," and Walton said the partnership makes the festival "smoother, run better" and showcases what Elgin and the surrounding area have to offer.
Thursday programming will include the Wildcat Showcase — a school-produced showcase from the Elgin Independent School District — gazebo-stage performances, karaoke, 'Sip, Shop, and Stroll' downtown and designated busking spots for local musicians. Walton said the festival will place busking spaces "from Millie's all the way down to Lightening Bar" so musicians can perform throughout downtown.
Saturday is planned as a full-day event from about 10 a.m. to about 10 p.m., with vendors, food and craft booths and continuous live music across several stages. Walton listed performers that will appear around town, including Just Hannah, Broken Alibi, Latin Dukes, Alicia Adkins, Marcus Morales, Jamroom Band and the Chubby Knop choir, and said Millie's on Main will host afternoon and evening sets. The main stage lineup includes Hardproof (an Austin-based Afro-funk group) and Malford Milligan, who Walton described as an Elgin resident and the festival's closing performer.
The Elgin Education Foundation will host a crawfish boil at Ogan Memorial Park to kick off Saturday's events, with Just Hannah opening that stage. Walton noted one additional band for that stage was still being finalized at the time of the interview.
Organizers said the festival will also offer merchandise — new T-shirts, key chains and stickers — and encouraged attendees to follow the festival on Facebook and Instagram and to visit elginmusicfestival.com for the latest schedule and details. Ticketing, pricing and some stage assignments were not specified in the interview.
Walton closed by thanking community partners and volunteers for contributing time and funds to produce the event and said he hopes the festival will continue to grow as more local musicians settle in Elgin. Alvarez and Walton invited residents and visitors to check downtown programming and vendor offerings during the weekend-long celebration.
