The City of Carbondale has hired a new promoter and will have a music festival the weekend before the total solar eclipse.
City Manager Gary Williams says after the deal with the original promoter fell through last month, officials had to move to plan B.
He says St. Louis-based American Bands Entertainment will offer tribute bands of Green Day, Fleetwood Mac, and U2 on Saturday, August 19 and 70's and 80's rock on Sunday, August 20.
Williams says the city was a bit skeptical of the musical offerings at first, but decided they would appeal to the majority of people in town that weekend.
"We're going to have a lot of parents for move-in weekend, locals, all the eclipse chasers. Our demographic is probably 35-55, so I think the acts being proposed actually make a lot more sense."
Williams says the city wants to make the atmosphere as fun as possible, so it will allow public possession of alcohol that weekend.
"Now folks can come down and spend the day downtown. They can go have dinner and leave with a drink - as long as it's in a plastic cup. They can go watch music. They can go to another venue."
Williams says because the new musical line-up will be free, no areas will be fenced off, so people will be able to move freely.
The new agreement will cost the city around 54-thousand dollars.
