Two Upcoming Concerts to Rock Monmouth City Park
By Vidal Pena
In late 2024 Joseph Connolly founded Slip Kid Presents to create a space for young singers, songwriters, & bands to come together, create and perform their music. Using existing venues like the Dallas Event Center and the Monmouth City Park, these young musicians have been able to get experience playing live to local crowds here in our community.
This summer, Slip Kid Presents has regularly booked space at Dallas Event Center, the Monmouth City Park, and has added Parallel 45 and the Eola Hills Winery as additional venues.
I was able to team up with Joseph early this summer. Being a member of multiple community programs & performing arts groups, my hope has been to help fill those events with local talent.
Joseph has a T-shirt that promotes his events that says “your 1st original song will be bad. Good! Make it anyway!”
That caught my attention. The first song I ever wrote was in the 4th grade about a Barbara Corcoran book I read titled, “My Wolf, My Friend.” The song was more a book report than anything else, but I felt a sense of accomplishment after I wrote it, and I’ll always remember that.
Over the past 15-20 years of being a part of talent shows, whether being in them, being a judge, or now coordinating them, I’ve met so many talented kids, teens, and adults. They are tremendous singers, songwriters, and band members. I know there are many in this community that want to share their music with the world, they just haven’t had a way to, until now.
Slip Kid Presents has had several shows this summer that have featured country, rock, high school jazz bands and funk bands–as well as solo artists. More performances are coming as the 2027 calendar is currently getting booked!
The musicians are paid for their performances, thanks to the generosity of Joseph Connolly’s Slip Kid Presents. At these events there are fantastic local places to get food close to the Monmouth city park and Parallel 45, so people will grab a bite nearby, bring chairs and settle down with friends and family to enjoy the tunes as these remarkable kids launch their musical careers in public.
Upcoming, we have two exciting shows. This Thursday at noon in Monmouth’s Main Street Park, two talented local girls, Chloe Lockwood and Cheyenne Stoddard will open for rock band Glitter & Gasoline.
Next Thursday, August 27th, we’ve got a live jam session featuring local kids with recent graduate Samara Winningham’s new band, “Incredibly Broke.” They will open for Portland funk band Dub Orchestra.
Let’s be honest here, “Incredibly Broke” is a Pulitzer Prize winning name for a rock band.
If you are interested in being a part of the upcoming events, please contact me at 503-999-0501 or email me at vidalpena1973@gmail.com. Please visit Slipkidpresents.com for more information!
The Indy Herald & Globe 
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