July 17, 2015 | Warnock Lake | Atchison, KS |

Click Here to Get Your Tickets Now!

LakeFest is the kick-off for the annual Amelia Earhart Festival in Atchison. The festival celebrates the life and spirit of the famous aviatrix, who grew up in Atchison before embarking on her flying career, which carried her to worldwide fame. The festival includes a downtown fair, education and research events, children’s events, the Pioneering Achievement Award presentation and much more, including a fireworks show on the banks of the Missouri River considered to be the best in the Midwest. The event draws tens of thousands of visitors each July.

LakeFest 2015 tickets are on sale now for $25 and are available at the link below or at:

• The Santa Fe Depot, 200 S. 10^th St. in Atchison
• Atchison bank locations
• Exchange National Bank and Trust locations in Leavenworth, Lansing, Easton, Effingham, Troy and Rushville
• HyVee in St Joseph
• The Student Body-Maryville
• Merz Farm Equipment-Falls City

Tickets are $30 the day of the concert, July 17.

The concert is held in the natural amphitheater on the beautiful shores of Warnock Lake. Gates open at 4 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. with the national anthem and the opening act. Food and drink vendors are available onsite, along with fun for children. Children aged 10 and under are admitted free of charge. Bring your own seating.

LakeFest 2015 Headliner: Eli Young Band

Eli Young Band, Breakout Artist Easton Corbin and Past “The Voice” Winner Cassadee Pope Set to Perform at LakeFest 2015 on July 17

ATCHISON, Kan. (Dec. 17, 2014) — The Eli Young Band started out playing small shows in little towns around its native Texas, but after three No. 1 hits, a Grammy nomination and an Academy of Country Music Award, the group is on the rise. As has become the standard, the LakeFest promoters have snagged another rising act in the Eli Young Band to headline LakeFest 2015 on July 17 at Warnock Lake in Atchison, Kan.

The group’s rise has been long but steady, dating back to 2000 when the group started performing together while attending North Texas State University. Eli Young Band developed and honed their skills on the competitive Texas music circuit, building up a strong fan base before breaking into the country charts with its No. 1 hit “Crazy Girl” in 2011. The double platinum single became the No. 1 most played country song of the year on Billboard’s 2011 year end chart and earned them the ACM Award for Song of the Year.

“We’re so excited about this year’s line-up,” Amelia Earhart Festival Coordinator Jacque Pregont said. “We feel like we have, yet again, put together artists that will provide an exciting night of exceptional entertainment! All three acts are well-known and are carving out a significant place in the country music industry. We continue to offer top-notch entertainment at a bargain price. We’re looking forward to a fantastic LakeFest 2015!”

After starting out playing in tiny clubs, Eli Young Band has graduated to packing out theatres and medium-size venues as a headliner. They also earned an opening spot on Kenny Chesney’s most recent stadium tour.

The band’s latest album, “10,000 Towns,” features their third No. 1 hit, “Drunk Last Night” and the newest single, “Dust.” The album’s title is a nod to Eli Young Band’s early years of playing small gigs and may be their most polished record to date. In recording 10,000 Towns, the Eli Young Band gathered songs from Music Row’s top writers, including Craig Wiseman, David Lee Murphy, Jon Randall and Will Hoge, and the band also penned half the songs on the album themselves.“It gets challenging when you’re touring so much to sit down and actually try to write, but we spent a lot of time in 2013 just trying to write however we could,” Guitarist James Young said. “It was fun for us because the four of us all sat down and wrote for this record which was a great experience,” Lead vocalist Mike Eli said. “All four of us are on ‘Prayer For The Road,’ ‘Traces’ and ‘Revelations.’ John and James were co-writers on ‘Dust’ while I was co-writer on ‘Angel Like You.’ ‘What Does’ was John, James and I and ‘Last Broken Heart’ was the same. We’ve never had a song on a record where all four of us were songwriters until this album.”

Eli Young Band’s emergence into the country music world was a gradual climb towards the top but the man taking the stage before them took Nashville by storm.

Easton Corbin burst onto the scene with his self-titled debut album in 2010. He became the first male country artist in 17 years to have his first two consecutive singles go to No. 1. “A Little More Country Than That” and “Roll With It” kicked off a strong debut that saw the Gilchrist County, Fla. native receive 13 country music award nominations in a six-month period. He won 2010 American Country Awards in every breakthrough artist category – Artist of the Year: Breakthrough Artist, as well as Single of the Year: Breakthrough Artist and Music Video: Breakthrough Artist for “A Little More Country Than That.” He tied with Lady Antebellum to earn the most nominations, garnering seven.

The awards and recognition are secondary to what Corbin’s lifelong dream has been. “This is a dream come true,” he says. “This is something I’ve wanted all of my life. To be able to do this for a living and have people like it, I couldn’t ask for any better. I am so blessed.”

Corbin was named Billboard’s Top New Country Artist of 2010 and released his second album in 2012 with another expected in 2015.

Corbin’s sound is unapologetically traditional country like some of his heroes, such as George Strait and Keith Whitley. Much of that can be traced to his early years and the experiences that made him want to sing country music, like the Saturday nights spent with his grandparents watching the Opry.

“My grandparents liked to watch the Opry,” Corbin remembers. “We’d start Saturday night off with ‘Hee Haw’ and then ‘Opry Backstage’ and then ‘Opry Live’.”

Despite his traditional country sound, Corbin’s lyrics are rooted in the present but recall a time of simpler things in life like he experienced in the rural county in Florida where he grew up working on his grandparents’ cattle farm.

After stealing the national spotlight when she won season three of “The Voice” as a part of Team Blake (LakeFest alumni and The Voice Coach Blake Shelton), Cassadee Pope has continued to climb towards the top of the charts. Selling over 1.7 million tracks to date, Pope ascended to the top of the iTunes Country chart with her debut album “Frame By Frame” and her GOLD-certified lead single, “Wasting All These Tears.” Pope recently received her first-ever award nomination for Artist of the Year: New Artist at the American Country Awards.

Location: Warnock Lake

17862 274th Rd., Atchison, KS 66002

The natural amphitheater at Warnock Lake is the perfect backdrop for a star-studded outdoor concert on a beautiful Kansas summer night. Warnock Lake is located about 3 miles southwest of Atchison and also includes some wonderful attractions, including the Amelia Earhart Earthwork and the International Forest of Friendship.

A few things to keep in mind while you’re preparing for the show:

• Gates open at 4:00 p.m.
• The show begins with the National Anthem at 7:00 p.m.
• Food and drink vendors available onsite
• Children aged 10 and under admitted free to the concert
• Bring your own seating
• No outside food or drink allowed
• Water stations will be available

Tickets

Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 the day of the show. Tickets go on sale May 1, 2014.