NC State Fair announces 2015 lineup, lots of locals

After years of losing money for the Dorton Arena concerts during the North Carolina State Fair booking somewhat expensive national acts that didn't typically deliver strong ticket sales, this year the lineup will exclusively feature North Carolina acts and all of the shows will be free.

A few acts caught our attention including local indie favorites The Love Language playing the big stage on Friday, October 23. The outdoor waterfall stage will feature Hammer No More the Fingers and The Beast among the lineup on Saturday October 24. Other acts playing the fair include the Charlie Daniels Band, Jason Michael Carroll, The Real Laww, Peter Lamb and the Wolves and many more. Check out the full lineup below.

Two more Downtown Live headliners announced

So the Raleigh Downtown Live people just announced that Filter will be headlining one of their 2009 summer concerts. This is no shocker — another band whose successful days passed a long time ago.

Here's the kicker though. The Charlie Daniels Band are headlining one of the shows. This is not what we had in mind at all when hoped the series would move away from 90's bands and washed up artists. I'll be far away from downtown on July 25 when "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" goes down.

So I think this kills any chance of the organizers booking a respectable, currently relevant act. But really, did we actually expect them to ever book a good act? No, no we did not.

Raleigh Downtown Live schedule:
05.30.09 - Candlebox
06.13.09 - Filter
07.25.09 - The Charlie Daniels Band