News Track: Blues concert to raise money for Riverside Roundhouse

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Czech Village will host a blues concert later this summer as a fundraising effort help to restore a former community center torn down nearly a decade ago.

BACKGROUND

The Riverside Roundhouse was a neighborhood center built in the early 1960s that once sat on the grounds near the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library.

The building was severely damaged in the 2008 flood and eventually dismantled.

The Friends of Czech Village association unveiled plans in March to restore the facility, as well as launch a capital campaign to fundraise the estimated $1.5 million cost of reconstruction.

The restored structure would serve as a focal point in the city's proposed Czech Village Park, a project that will develop a 39.7-acre area that would include an ice rink, playgrounds and an adventure park.

The roundhouse often was used for farmers markets, festivals and other community events, and the Friends of Czech Village hope to bring back that atmosphere.

WHAT'S HAPPENED SINCE

Czech Village Blues will be an outdoor concert held in Czech Village as a fundraiser for the Riverside Roundhouse.

The event, which will feature Chicago-based blues slide guitarist Joanna Connor and an opening performance from Iowa Blues Hall of Fame artists, is scheduled for Aug. 12 on 16th Avenue SW.

The gates open at 5 p.m. and the concert begins at 6 p.m. Tickets in advance are $15, or $20 at the entrance.

The concert was created out of a partnership between Friends of Czech Village and the Linn County Blues Society, a not-for-profit that promotes blues musicians in Eastern Iowa.

'Blues certainly isn't Czech, but this whole area is based on ethnic diversity,” said Michelle Bell, president of the Friends of Czech Village. 'Yes, it was mostly Czech and Slovak settlers, but there used to ethnic fests at the roundhouse back in the day, like Greek dinners. So there's nothing that specifically has to tie it to that culture.”

Czech Village Blues organizers hope the structure would offer an ideal venue for the festival in future years.

'We plan on making it an annual event,” said Greg West, entertainment chair for the Linn County Blues Society.

Profits from ticket and merchandise sales will be split evenly between the organizations, Bell said. All proceeds that go to the Friends of Czech Village will be put toward the roundhouse campaign, she said.

Bell said the Riverside Roundhouse construction will begin sometime in 2019, after the city finishes its flood-protection system along the Cedar River. Once completed, ownership will pass onto the Parks and Recreation Department.

Tickets for Czech Village Blues can be purchased online at www.lcbs.org or www.czechvillagefriends.org.

l Comments: (319) 368-8536; michaela.ramm@thegazette.com