July 21, 2022
Hola America News
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Moline will commemorate its 150th anniversary with a week-long Sesquicentennial Celebration in August It started with a mill… In 1836, when one of the earliest European settlers to the area, David Jr. Sears arrived, the spot that was to become Moline had only three permanent buildings. With his pioneer spirit and eye to the future, Sears built a dam and several mills, driven by the power of the rolling rapids that was the Mississippi River at the time. As the mills prospered, more settlers arrived and in 1843 a town was platted by Sears and six other men. The men decided to name the town Moline, an adaptation of French meaning ‘Mill Town’ or ‘City of Mills’. In 1848, Moline was officially incorporated. That same year, a young entrepreneur named John Deere moved to Moline to take advantage of the water power and access to transportation hubs. His factories eventually grew into a multi-national corporation and forever shaped the workforce and culture of the city, as well as influenced the wider world of agriculture in a tremendous way. 150 years This coming August, Moline will celebrate a noteworthy milestone - the 150th anniversary of its incorporation. From its humble beginnings as a modest frontier
settlement to its current status as a thriving city of more than 40,000 in a metro area of around 400,000 Moline has grown and evolved over the past 15 decades. All of us can celebrate this history through a week-long Moline 150th Sesquicentennial Celebration. Residents, former residents, fans, friends, neighbors, and anyone with affection for the City of Moline are invited to recognize, commemorate and celebrate this anniversary throughout the entire sesquicentennial week, August 22-29, 2022. Sesquicentennial Celebration Downtown Moline will be rocking, rolling and a little bit of everything in between Thursday, Aug. 25, and Saturday, Aug. 27 with nearly 20 bands taking part in the three-day music and arts street festival. Headliners on the MidAmerican Energy main stage are Galactic featuring Anjelika Jelly Joseph, Celisse, Pokey LaFarge, Lissie, The Way Down Wanderers, and Banda Cerro Azul. The Moline 150 Sesquicentennial is presented and sponsored by John Deere. In addition to the headlining acts, the following regional bands are scheduled to appear as well: Mountain Swallower, Electric Shock, Jason Carl’s Tom Petty Tribute, Lewis Knudsen, Group Innstinto, the
La Banda Cerro Azul will highlight the Friday Night main stage takeover by Mercado on Fifth.
Forty Twos, Logan Spring & The Wonderfully Wild, Smooth Groove, Blues Rock-It, Crooked Cactus, Piso’s Cure and CJ Parker & XII.
es across the country. Now based in Los Angeles, he brings a mix of Americana, old-time country, blues, folk and Western swing to the stage.
Here is a little more info about the headliners:
Lissie is very familiar to Quad Cities audiences. A Rock Island native, she moved to Los Angeles in her early 20s and embarked on a musical career spanning four albums and countless sold-out concerts. She now lives on a farm in Iowa, but still delights with her mix of rock and folk-pop.
Galactic is a New Orleans-based ensemble that plays an exciting blend of funk, pop, R&B, jazz and hip hop. They are fronted by Anjelika Jelly Joseph, a former American Idol contestant who recently toured with Grammy-nominated Tank and the Bangers. Celisse is a sing-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, performer and spoken word artist who has played with many notable musicians including Mariah Carey, Graham Nash and Melissa Etheridge. She is a founding member of Trey Anastasio’s Ghost of the Forest. Grupo Innstinto playing at Mercado on Fifth earlier this year. Photo by Tar Macias / Hola America
Pokey LaFarge was born in nearby Bloomington, Illinois but cut his musical teeth as an itinerant musician playing street corners, bus stops and other public spac-
The Way Down Wanderers are another regional favorite, hailing from down Interstate 74 in Peoria. They play a quirky style of modern bluegrass and roots-pop. Banda Cerro Azul will highlight the Friday Night main stage takeover by Mercado on Fifth. They are a wildly popular Chicago-based traditional Banda de Viento A full daily schedule for the festival – including other local acts on our community stage – will be announced later in July and added to the Moline 150 website.
