Miranda Lambert, Rascal Flatts among Country LakeShake lineup

The newly renamed Huntington Bank Pavilion on Northerly Island will be the site for the 2017 edition of Country LakeShake, the music extravaganza now in its third year, and quickly becoming one of the most popular and must-play outdoor country music fests in the U.S.

This year’s fest, slated for June 23-25, will feature the rockin’ lineup of Miranda Lambert, Rascal Flatts, Thomas Rhett, Little Big Town, Lauren Alaina, Gary Allan, Big And Rich, Brothers Osborne, Craig Campbell, Dan + Shay, High Valley, Randy Houser, Mo Pitney, Michael Ray, Chase Rice, The Cadillac Three and William Michael Morgan, on two stages. More acts will be announced in the coming weeks.

For the first time, single-day tickets ($99.50) and three-day passes ($225-$599.50) will go on sale simultaneuosly, beginning 10 a.m. Feb. 3 at lakeshakefestival.com.

“Nashville is a very small community and all the artists know each other and all the managers know each other and all the agents know each other. So when you put together a quality event like this one in Chicago, they all get to talking,” said Brian O’Connell, president of Country Touring at Live Nation, about securing a top-tier lineup for the festival he created. “After the first couple of years, and especially what we did with CMT last year making it THE country music festival of the summer, artists got to see there’s no other festival in country music that has the look that this one does. To have Chicago as your backdrop to the whole festival experience just takes your breath away.”

Pushing the festival into late June will also hopefully give more fans a better opportunity to attend, O’Connell said (the fest’s first year coincided with Father’s Day weekend).

“Moving it a week back gets us out of that time of year when we had a lot of weddings and graduations that we were competing with,” he said.

Commenting on some of the lineup, O’Connell noted, “For Thomas Rhett, here’s a guy [who] has just been out there building and building, to headline Friday night is amazing. And it’s just gonna be a giant party with Randy Hauser and Big and Rich. With Miranda and Little Big Town [on Saturday night] it just doesn’t get much better than that. And Sunday night is near and dear to my heart because of Rascal Flatts, a band I’ve worked with [for many years]. They were the first country act to headline Wrigley Field [July 2009). They have a very special relationship with Chicago.”

Fans can also expect plenty of food, drink and other fun activities including the return of the Blackhawks Bar, food trucks, a kids zone, Putt-Putt golf, silent disco line dancing, a wine lounge and more.

The full schedule and all the details are available at lakeshakefestival.com.