WAM Fest 2026

Wabeno welcomes Chicago folk singer songwriter Mark Dvorak to WAM Fest July 18

WABENO WI - Mark your calendars for Saturday July 18, 2026. WAM Fest is an outdoor, free event, held on the Wbeno Band Shell and Logging Museum grounds. The 2026 Fest will feature a Street Market offering more than thirty booths for vendors, a student art contest, food trucks and nine musical performances from local anc out-of-state performers.

Master of Ceremonies Scott Swosinski opens the festivities at 11:00 am followed by the acoustic duo Two Halves and a Whole. At 12:00 noon Phyl Wickham performs, and at 1:00 pm the electric sounds of Dan Flannery fills the bandshell. The cxountry-folk duet Dane & Becky take the stage at 2:00 pm and at 3:00 pm Chicago’s official troubadour Mark Dvorak, will bring his songs, stories and humor.

“Mark has been on the road for a lot of years,” said Big Easel manager and chef Tim Friesen. “We’re thrilled he’ll be joining us for his first WAM Fest.” 

Dvorak who accompanies himself on guitar, 5-string banjo and 12-string guitar is celebrating the release of his 20th CD, Live & Alone, recorded in an empty concert hall during the height of the pandemic lock down, and his fourth book of essays, 31 Winters, which reflects on his long journey through music and teaching.

The Chicago Tribune has called Dvorak “masterful,” and the Fox Valley Folk Festival describes him as “a living archive of song and style.” Dvorak has won awards for journalism and children’s music, and was honored in 2013 with the FARM Lantern Bearer Award from Folk Alliance International. In 2008 he received the Woodstock Folk Festival Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2012 Rich Warren, long time host of The Midnight Special radio program named Dvorak “Chicago’s official troubadour.”

At 4:00 pm Box’d Wine performs and at 5:00 pm it’s Gin, Chocolate & Bottle Rockets. Singer songwriter Jennifer Reisch at 6:30 pm and BogFoot headlines at 8:00 pm.

For information visit the Wabeno Art and Music Festival website at www.wabenoartandmusicfest.org. Learn more about Mark Dvorak at www.markdvorak.com.



Stay in touch • markdvorakinfo@gmail.com • PO Box 181 • Brookfield IL 60513 • 312 315 4273