Rising country group to play DuPage County Fair

DuPage County Fair organizers struck gold last year when they booked an unknown local band to headline the second day of the annual event.

Organizers booked the Plain White T's when they were struggling to get airplay for their major label debut, but by the time they took the stage in late July the Chicago band had the nation's No. 1 pop song, "Hey There Delilah."

A year later, Wilbert Hageman, head of programming for the fair, is hoping lightning strikes twice. So far he's booked three headliners for four nights and he's banking that an upstart pop-country act called Little Big Town will be this year's Plain White T's.

"A lot of it is timing on something like this," Hageman said. "We try to book an act that has something going for it."

Named the Academy of Country Music's top new vocal group last year, the Little Big Town foursome will open the fair July 23, a Wednesday, as part of their tour to promote their sophomore release "A Place to Land." Their 2005 release "The Road to Here" garnered the band two Grammy nominations.

For the second night, Hageman said the fair is trying something new.

A Christian music-themed show with Jars of Clay and Steven Curtis Chapman will take place July 24, he said.

"This is one of the first years we've really kind of stressed Christian music," Hageman said.

Tweens will be aplenty July 25 when Corbin Bleu, co-star of the Disney hit movie "High School Musical," hits the main stage in support of his CD "Another Side."

"We're quite excited about that booking," Hageman said. "We might have done a pretty good job of getting younger people out here for that."

Hageman said he expects to have Saturday's headliner booked in two weeks, but with several feelers out, he didn't know what type of act would be the one to fill the slot. Ticket prices for all the shows will be decided sometime this week, he said.

No musical act headlines Sunday, which is devoted to two demolition derbies.