A FULL DAY OF MUSIC and ART! FREE TO THE PUBLIC (shown in order of performance)

Central mountain Jazz cats- LOCAL STUDENTS BAND

Saturday, August 8, 2026

Noon - 1:00 pm

MAIN & GROVE STREET STAGE

Local students open our festival every year! The Central Mountain Jazz Cats ensemble includes students in grades 7 through 12 who want to explore music through jazz performance.  All band and orchestral instrumentalists are welcome to join the group, which meets a few days a week, after school, from October to May. Students learn to play in various jazz styles, including swing, latin, rock, funk, and blues.  The art of improvisation is emphasized, and students are afforded multiple opportunities throughout the school year to show off their musical creativity and skills.  Annual performances typically include a Winter concert and a Spring concert at Central mountain High School, a December performance at the Monument Tree Lighting Festival, and an adjudicated performance at Music in the Parks in the Hershey area.  Additionally, the CM Jazz Cats ensemble usually schedules a mini-tour of performances in our community.

BABY SODA - PROHIBITION ERA JAZZ BAND

Saturday, August 8, 2026

1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

SUSQUEHANNA EVENT CENTER PATIO STAGE

Baby Soda was formed in 2007 in Brooklyn New York, by musicians who met playing traditional jazz in Washington Square Park and the NYC subway system. The group has grown and changed over the years, to include a large family of talented New York musicians, many coming here to realize their musical aspirations. The repertoire has evolved over the years playing more of the music common to the street bands in New Orleans today.

You can expect to hear the music of Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Hoagy Carmichael, Harry Warren & the composers who created the great American songs of Tin Pan Alley. They consider the band to not be recreationists, playing note for note transcriptions, but play this expanded repertoire in the New Orleans style of small ensemble improvisation, blending arranged and improvised sections.So dust off your gatbsy style clothing because Baby Soda will be bringing their unique sounds of 1920s Bourbon Steet to downtown Lock Haven.

GROOVE MERCHANTS

Saturday, August 8, 2026

2:30 pm - 4:00 pm

MAIN & GROVE STREET STAGE

Founded in 2012, out of the practice rooms and Main Street basements of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania by lead vocalist Tye Vallone, lead guitarist Luke Ferracone, and bassist John Evin Groome, the band discovered their chemistry almost instantly. Twisting in elements of blues, funk and soul resulting in a revival of authentic performance, The Groove Merchants have been pushing that sound forward ever since.

With each performance, the band strives to create an energy that lies inside intimate clubs and transcends past large stages. Once The Groove Merchants show up, expect relentless, soulful energy and a belief in connecting beyond music.

The band has performed sets at the historic Sellersville Theater in Sellersville, PA, 118 North on Philadelphia’s Main Line, The Grape Room in Manayunk, PA, the Midnight Mountain Music Show in Blakeslee, PA, hosted by country group Mason Porter, and Octoberfest in Medford, NJ. The Groove Merchants also maintain a strong Lehigh Valley presence with yearly appearances at Blues, Brews, and BBQ in Allentown, PA, Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA, and hosting the annual Lehigh Valley Turkey Jam at SteelStacks. The group is also set to make its debut at the famous Ardmore Music Hall in Ardmore, PA supporting world-renowned Talking Heads tribute act Start Making Sense in late 2025.

THE UNSTOPPABLE HACKBEATS

Saturday, August 8, 2026

4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

SUSQUEHANNA EVENT CENTER PATIO STAGE

Featuring Tropical Pop and Salsa Funk, Global South Grooves.

Percussionist, bassist and singer-songwriter Dawn Drake leads her Tropical Pop ensemble ZapOte, which breaks down cultural barriers by incorporating everything from Cuban Timba to Brazilian samba and Funk into a soul-shaking mix. Deep bass grooves and swinging horn lines provide a danceable backdrop for Drake’s socially conscious lyrics, which impart messages of universal consciousness, empowerment, and compassion.

And if all this isn’t enough, she has a new album, Nightshade, just released, with her band ZapOte—named for the tasty Caribbean fruit that grows throughout the Caribbean and Mexico. It’s also the title of a song on her preceding album Everythinglessness, the chorus of which was written years earlier after a visit to Santiago de Cuba--a place that has greatly inspired her through its music, dance and culture, not to mention the country where she first encountered the fruit.

“We play a lot of party gigs and it’s a party band,” says Virginia native Drake, whose nine-piece percussion- and horn-heavy group delivers what she calls “a globe of musical language” in her compositions, these reflecting her intensive studies of African and Caribbean music genres as well as socially-conscious lyrics geared toward promoting multiculturalism, tolerance and understanding.

CLOSE OUT THE NIGHT AND THE FESTIVAL

WITH two great bands!

MUSIC GUARANTEED TO MAKE YOU MOVE!

Diana Jacobs Band

Saturday, August 8, 2026

5:30 pm - 7:30 pm

MAIN & GROVE STREET STAGE

Diana Jacobs will hit you with a powerful punch of funk... and soothe you with a sweet soul groove. This two-time SAMMY (Syracuse Area Music) Award winner, is a versatile vocalist, pianist, percussionist, songwriter, and producer. Diana explores her love of many genres through a variety of collaborations. Along with her husband, Mettis Jacobs (bassist/guitarist), Diana founded the Diana Jacobs Band, a high-energy funk, soul, R&B horn band comprised of stellar players from all over CNY. Their all-original album, Good Metticine, earned them the 2018 SAMMY Award for Best R&B Recording, and their most recent album entitled Love Each Other, Love Our World  was nominated for a 2022 SAMMY Award in the Best R&B Recording category.  Diana's blues collaboration brings together some of Central New York's finest blues players to present a unique mix of blues and jazz. She released an album with this project that received the 2020 SAMMY award for Best Blues Recording. This all-original album, What She Needs, also features a performance by Grammy-winning trumpeter/flugelhornist, Randy Brecker! 

With these groups, Diana has performed at some of the biggest festivals in CNY including The Great NYS Fair, Oswego Harborfest, Webster Jazz Fest, Alexandria Bay's Blues in the Bay Festival and The New York State Blues Festival! Diana has also been a part of several regional shows as a backing vocalist and as a lead vocalist, most notably the 2019 Rochester Hall of Fame Show (singing behind Gary Wright, John Hall of Orleans, and Al Jardine of The Beach Boys), the 2019 Lou Reed Tribute Show at the Syracuse Area Music Awards Ceremony (original members of his late 70's band), Paulie Cerra's Hometown Showdown 2017 and 2018, and The Great Salt City Blues Show 4. Additionally, she has recorded in the studio for various projects including the Studio Jams “Lest We Forget” Series produced by Tom Emmi, and backing vocals for SAMMY-nominated Chris Terra's album, Lady Luck,  and for Little Georgie & the Shuffling Hungarians. Occasionally, Diana brings it all down to a low simmer when in more intimate settings with her duo or her jazz trio.

EpicSoul

Saturday, August 8, 2026

7:30 pm - 10:30 pm

SUSQUEHANNA EVENT CENTER PATIO STAGE

EPICSOUL has a core group of dedicated musicians who perform over 60 dates a year together.  This dedicated group, featuring members of the CHOPS HORNS, offers a truly unique and sophisticated entertainment experience. CHOPS HORNS served as the horn section for The Police’s “Ghost In The Machine – World Tour”, worked on The Rolling Stones’ “Undercover”, Bob Dylans “Empire Burlesque”, Public Enemy’s “Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age”, Christina Aguilera’s “Stripped”, Alicia Key’s “Diary Of Alicia Keys”, “Unplugged” and “As I Am”, Mariah Carey’s “Emancipation Of Mimi” and on the soundtrack of the movie “Glory Road”. 

From soul-stirring Motown medleys, to today’s R&B, pop, rock and contemporary hits, EPICSOUL rolls from one song to another that will keep the LH JAMS DANCIN' IN THE STREET party going late into the evening.  EPICSOUL will entertain you with ballads from artists like Frank Sinatra, Etta James and Van Morrison as well as Santana, Bruno Mars, Sister Sledge, Pattie Labelle, Bonjovi, Amy Whinehouse, Kool and the Gang and many more.

Every member of the EPICSOUL Band brings a bit of their own unique style and talent to our performances.  With decades of professional experience as recording artists,  composers and arrangers, some of our musicians have recorded and/or toured with international and domestic recording artists including, Alicia Keys, Gloria Gaynor, Mariah Carey, Chaka Kahn, Jennifer Lopez, Mark Anthony and South Side Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.