Spring Benefit Concert for the 2026 Woodstock Folk Festival
Sunday, April 26, 2 – 4 pm | Stage Left Cafe, Woodstock
Spring Benefit Concert for the 2026 Woodstock Folk Festival will be held on Sunday afternoon, April 26, 2026, from 2-4 p.m. at Stage Left Cafe, 125 W Van Buren St, next to the Woodstock Opera House on the Square.
The concert celebrates the Centennial of the historic Route 66, which begins in Illinois and ends in Santa Monica, California. *See below for Fun Facts About the Historic Route 66.
Performers will include Tricia Alexander, Chris Farrell, Ian Hall, Jazzman Jeff Justman, Dean Milano, Laurel Palma accompanied by bass player Al Fyfe, and Mike Preston. Dean, who is also a model car collector, will bring a thematically related display. Add that to a themed cake and special drinks, and it’s an event you don’t want to miss.
Read more about our performers below under Spring Concert Benefit Performers.
Proceeds from the concert support and present this year’s Woodstock Folk Festival on Sunday, July 19. Please help us promote the Festival by printing and sharing the flyer at the end of this post.
How to Get Your Concert Tickets
Concert tickets are available through this link:
You can also purchase tickets through the Woodstock Opera House Box Office, woodstockoperahouse.com.
Tickets purchased in advance are $22, including a $2 service fee; if there are still tickets available on the day of the concert, they will be $27, including a $2 service fee.
Spring Benefit Concert Performers – Look Who’s Coming!
Tricia Alexander is an award-winning performing and healing artist with a 40-year legacy of inspiring community through music and poetry. Spanning jazz, blues, and folk – multi-instrumentalist and performance poet, Tricia delivers joy-filled, soulful performances that weave together original compositions and re-imagined covers to uplift and empower.
Chris Farrell is a veteran of Chicago’s Earl of Old Town singer-songwriter scene, dating back to the days of John Prine and Steve Goodman. He also spent over 40 years as a faculty member at The Old Town School of Folk Music. Presenting finely crafted songs with solid finger picking, beautiful melodies, and rich vocals, he easily flows from ballads to satire, from humor to social commentary while always finding room for the sweet tunes you’ll hum on the way home. In addition to his work as a touring musician, Chris is a popular actor in the Chicago area, appearing in stage, television, and film productions.
Ian Hall performs solo and with numerous bands in Northern Illinois. He can often be heard at Winestock on Woodstock Square.
“Jazzman” Jeff Justman has been making music with his guitar since he was 9 years old and composing music since he was 12 years old . . . always chasing the musical muse that captures his imagination and pleasing his audiences.
Jeff is most known for performing acoustic guitar instrumental ambience music as well as for his vocal interpretations of songs. Jeff demonstrates in all his performances that beautiful music improves our lives and communities.
In addition to performing his unique brand of artful and skilled music in live performances, “Jazzman” Jeff serves on the Mundelein Arts Commission; staged and hosted the Acoustic Music Jam in Lake County, Illinois, for over 20 years; and he served for 6 years as a Board Member of The Lake County Folk Club.
Besides being a community-minded musician, Jeff is a retired banker. After a 40-year career in banking. “Jazzman” Jeff Justman regularly plays his music at Taste of Paris in Mundelein and has been the weekly resident musician at the Libertyville Farmers Market for 9 years. More about Jeff can be found on www.JazzmanJeffJustman.com.
Dean Milano was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but moved to the Chicago, Illinois area in 1964, just in time for the Beatles’ arrival and the subsequent forming of garage bands on every block of every city across the country. Of course, Dean jumped into the fray and never looked back.
Milano has played at one time or another in probably 75 bands over a 50-year-long career that encompasses his love of rock and roll, folk music, country and western, bluegrass, jazz, Cajun music, showtunes, and every other type of music he heard along the way. Dean’s cover tunes include everything from the Beatles to Bono, 1960s, ‘70s, and beyond.
His involvement in the Chicago music scene goes back to the 1960s when his rock bands started playing the Chicago teen club scene, eventually opening for many national and local acts. The Casualaires and the Singing Bananas, Dean’s acoustic bands, played the Lincoln Avenue scene, including Orphan’s, Somebody Else’s Troubles, the Bulls, the Earl of Old Town, and everything in between. The early 1980s found him in The New Seekers singing Hey There Georgy Girl for four years on the road and singing the National Anthem with them at Yankee Stadium in front of 40,000 crazed baseball fans.
Traveling in the folk music fast lane was quite a different experience. Over a 55-year-long career, he has opened for many performers, including Steppenwolf, Bo Diddley, The 5th Dimension, The Kingston Trio, Chubby Checker, Paul Butterfield, Richie Havens, and Cab Calloway.
Pianist and singer Laurel Palma plays with numerous groups including the Northern Illinois “supergroup” The LeftOvers. She’s also a member of the Off Square Music Board. She’ll be accompanied by bass player Al Fyfe, who performs with other groups, including Big Fish.
With his slightly damaged take on things, Mike Preston worked comedy clubs and sordid one nights from coast to coast for over 30 years, and made several TV appearances, including Showtime’s Comedy Club, and NBC’s Friday Night. Along the way, he produced and hosted a cable access talk show and self-published several books. These days, in addition to the occasional standup gig, Mike explores and enjoys the storytelling genre.
Want to revisit some of our earlier Spring Concerts? Visit the Concerts section of our Video Gallery on this site.
Take a musical journey and support the Festival by joining us on Sunday, April 26. Get your tickets now! Use the red button below:
Fun Facts About the Historic Route 66*
Often called the “Mother Road,” Route 66 is more than just a highway; it’s a 2,448-mile-long slice of Americana. Established in 1926, it served as the primary artery for those heading west in search of a better life.
Here are some of the most interesting facts about this legendary stretch of asphalt:
- It Crosses Three Time Zones – Route 66 starts in Chicago, Illinois, and ends at the Santa Monica Pier in California. Along the way, it traverses eight states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Because it covers so much ground, travelers crossing the entire route pass through the Eastern, Central, and Mountain time zones.
- The Birth of the “Drive-Thru” – We owe our modern fast-food culture to the Mother Road: Red’s Giant Hamburg in Springfield, Missouri, and the first McDonald’s (originally a BBQ pit) in San Bernardino, California.
- It Only Touches Kansas for 13 Miles – While most states boast hundreds of miles of the highway, Kansas only has a tiny 13.2-mile segment in its southeastern corner. Despite the short distance, the towns of Galena, Riverton, and Baxter Springs are packed with well-preserved 1920s architecture and gas stations.
- The “Main Street of America” – The road earned this nickname because it ran right through the hearts of hundreds of small towns. Before the Interstate Highway System bypassed them, Route 66 was the primary economic engine for these communities. This led to the rise of neon signs and kitsch architecture.
- It Was Decertified in 1985 – As the faster, wider Interstates (like I-40 and I-55) were completed, the old two-lane highway became obsolete. It was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27, 1985. However, thanks to preservationists, much of it was designated a “Historic Route,” and roughly 85% of the original road is still drivable today.
- The “Grapes of Wrath” Connection – Author John Steinbeck gave Route 66 its most famous moniker, the “Mother Road,” in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath. He used the highway as a symbol of flight and hope for the “Okies” escaping the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression.
*Compiled with the help of Gemini AI – for more information, check out the Wikipedia article. Also be sure to pull up the official Route 66 Centennial website.
