She may not love ribs, but rocker Joan Jett to play festival

No need to put a dime in the jukebox to hear Joan Jett this summer -- the bad girl rocker will perform July 5 at Ribfest in Naperville.

Along with her band -- the Blackhearts -- Jett will headline the Miller Lite Main Stage at the Naperville Exchange Club's annual Fourth of July weekend festival at Knoch Park.

This is the first time Jett has played Ribfest. Oddly, she's an ardent vegetarian who has spoken out against the treatment of turkeys by Butterball and derided circuses for using animals in their acts.

She's currently on a nationwide tour and there was a gap in her schedule between gigs in south Florida and Canada.

"She was the best choice available to us at the time," said Matt Kaley, Ribfest entertainment chairman.

Jett's booking rounds out the musical lineup for the four-day festival. Normally organizers have headliners in place months in advance of the show, but it's been a tough year to lock down performers, Kaley said.

"It's a variety of reasons," he said. "One being there are so many festivals in the area these days and I'd venture to guess this is the busiest weekend for these kinds of events."

Ribfest also is competing with venues like the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates and the Charter One Pavillion at Northerly Island in Chicago for these types of acts.

"Those kinds of places have deeper pockets than we do," he said.

Ribfest organizers also are feeling the sting of the dollar's sinking value globally. Many nostalgia bands that would normally be a perfect fit for a Ribfest booking are heading over to Europe this summer.

"They'd rather be paid in euros than dollars," Kaley said. "If they were willing to be paid in ribs, we'd be in better shape."

Many acts are also double or triple billing performances to cut down on production costs, he said.

"And again when we go after these acts we lose out to other venues just by sheer dollars we can offer," he said.

Ribs & tunes

Here's the musical lineups for July 3 through 6 at both stages at Ribfest in Naperville:

July 3

Miller Lite Main Stage: Ted Nugent

Brian R. Schultz Rock & Roll Stage: Big Head Todd & the Monsters

July 4

Miller Lite Main Stage: REO Speedwagon

Brian R. Schultz Rock & Roll Stage: The Turtles

July 5

Miller Lite Main Stage: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Brian R. Schultz Rock & Roll Stage: Foghat

July 6

Miller Lite Main Stage: Trace Adkins

Brian R. Schultz Rock & Roll Stage: Average White Band