Every Thursday evening from July 8 to August 26 you will find Live@5 entertainment (summer concerts) at John Dam Plaza at 815 George Washington Way. Entertainment starts at the HAPO (local credit union) Community Stage at 5:00 p.m. and runs either until 8:00 or 9:00 p.m., depending on the schedule of events.

August 5th brings the group Groove Principal, playing from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Richland residents enjoy the notoriety of the “principal players” of this group as the three members are local school district staff by day. Tony Langdon is the drummer and the principal at Kennewick’s Lincoln Elementary; his brother Sean Langdon is the vocalist and guitarist and the principal at Tapteal in West Richland and the main guitarist, Walt Hampton, is a Hanford graduate and a music teacher at White Bluffs Elementary in South Richland. They offer a fun-loving music comradery not to be missed.

You can bring your family to any of the Live@5 events. They are free of charge in a beautiful park setting between George Washington Way and Jadwin in the central part of the city. For adults, there is a beer garden serving local brews and local wines. Again, there is no entrance fees, but you buy tickets to purchase beverages. For kids, there is almost always a bounce house and sometimes other themes bring various activities for the kids. Last year the Richland Police Department brought some of their vehicles to the park and let kids sit in the cars to show them how “cool” police cars can be!

All Live@5 evenings have food trucks and various sundry offerings. The FaceBook page for Live@5 showed that the July 15th event had two bands instead of one featured band and food from DonTaco, Grubbins, The Cookie Bar, Baby J’s, Kettle Corn Factory, Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs, Gourmet South, and Bayou Some Cajun.

Sometimes there are giveaways; sometimes there are recreational vehicles to explore; but all times this is a family friendly and free event. On July 15th, they had numerous booths to visit: TROT Therapeutic Riding of TriCities, Columbia Industries, Free Culture Clothing, Tomorrow’s Health, KnockerBall Tricities LLC, Biomat USA, Chelsea Kaye King Farmasi Cosmetics, Renewal by Andersen LLC, The Children’s Reading Foundation of the Mid-Columbia, Tri-Cities Amateur Hockey Association, Legends Casino Hotel, Corwin Ford Tri-Cities, Columbia Distributing, and HAPO Community Credit Union.

If you can’t make the Groove Principal on August 5th, mark your calendars to see Stompin Ground on August 12th, Badlandz on August 19th, The Knockdowns on August 26th, or Voo Doo Alley on September 2nd. To find out the music genre of each band, check their FaceBook pages.

Set aside one Thursday evening to journey to John Dam Plaza, across for the Federal Building in Richland for a fun-filled evening. There is literally something for everyone to enjoy on the beautiful Tri-Cities’ summer nights. With no entrance fees, you can’t ask for a better Thursday evening out with the family and friends.

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