Dunes Learning Center Concert for Camp: Lightning Bug Music Festival, July 5, 2015

Lightning-Bug-Music-Festival-logoThe second annual Lightning Bug Music Festival will cap off the holiday weekend on July 5 with a stellar line-up of music and fun at Sunset Hill Farm in Valparaiso, IN.

The philanthropic music fest was a huge hit in its first year, creating buzz and raising more than $6,000 to send deserving kids to camp at nearby Dunes Learning Center. This year’s event features hand-picked bluegrass and folk rock bands, including 2015 Grammy award winner Jerry Douglas and his band The Earls of Leicester. Douglas, a renowned dobro player, has recorded more than 1,600 albums and won fourteen Grammys. Vagrant recording artists, Blitzen Trapper will also be featured, along with The Infamous Stringdusters, SHEL and Special Consensus. Local craft brews, a food truck village, family-friendly activities and a good cause—summer camp experiences for kids in need—make this a truly unique event.

“These are kids that wouldn’t get to go to summer camp,” said Lightning Bug Music Fest founder and CEO, Jim Chaddock. “This makes it so they can go.” Festival proceeds will be donated to Dunes Learning Center, a local nonprofit working in partnership with Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to connect children with nature.

Food truck entrepreneurs and music fans, Chaddock and wife Andrea Georgion, have brought the music that they love to Northwest Indiana. “You won’t see these acts at any local venue,” said Chaddock. “This lineup is sure to get people up dancing, laughing and having a great time.”

The venue, Valparaiso’s Sunset Hill Farm County Park, allows for all of that and more. The natural amphitheater offers ample opportunity for music lovers to set up chairs and blankets on the grassy hillside while kids play nearby.

The second annual Lightning Bug Music Festival is set for July 5 at Sunset Hill Farm in Valparaiso, IN. Gates open at 11 a.m. Music begins at noon. Children under 12 are free with adult admission. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit LightningBugMusicFestival.com.