5 Things: Time to soar at Wings Over Whiteside air show

Crank that propeller and take off for the wild blue yonder. The air show at Whiteside County Airport is just part of the week’s festivities highlighted in 5 Things To Do in the Sauk Valley. Also in the mix: a stage play whodunit, a presentation on Ronald Reagan, a trombone soloist and a bike-a-thon to support a hospice.

1 High flying fun. Wings Over Whiteside will be Friday and Saturday at Whiteside County Airport, 10950 Hoover Road, Rock Falls. Admission is free for air show practice runs at 5 p.m. on Friday. The activities on Saturday start with the 8 a.m. 2K Fun Run at the runway. The EAA Young Eagles will give free airplane rides to children ages 8 to 17 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The air show starts at 2 p.m. and promises to evoke the feeling of an old-fashioned barnstorming event. Featured performers are national aerobatics champion Patty Wagstaff, Full Throttle Formation Team, Trojan Phlyers, Eric Edgren, RJ Gritter, Betsy Biscuit Bomber and the Warbird Heritage Foundation’s P-51D Mustang and FG-1D Corsair. Live music by 30 West Band starts at 4:30. Parking is $5 and Saturday admission is $10 for ages 11 and older.

A P-51 Mustang sits under the darkening skies in Rock Falls after performing in the ACCA Air Show on Saturday, July 24, 2021, at the Whiteside County Airport.

2 On the slide. Trombone soloist Bryan Anton is the featured performer when the Dixon Municipal Band has a Summer Sounds concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Page Park Band Shell in Dixon. Anton will perform “Reflective Mood” by Sammy Nestico. The band will perform a series of marches, including the “New Mexico March.” Selections from “The Music Man” are also on the program. The Dixon High School drama department will sell refreshments.

3 Reagan and the Cold War. “Ronald Reagan and the Berlin Wall” will be a presentation by Dixon historian Gary Burger at 7 p.m. Monday at the Lee County Historical and Genealogical Society, 113 S. Hennepin Avenue. The program will focus on the influence the Reagan presidency had on the fall of Communism. Admission is free. The building is accessible for persons with disabilities. Call 815-284-1134 for more information.

4 Gotcha! The stage production of the murder mystery “Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap” is in its final weekend at Dixon Stage Left, 306 West 1st Street, Dixon. Performances about the Monkswell Manor snowstorm slayings are 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets $15 to $30.

5 Pedal power. The Rock River Hospice and Home is holding its first bike-a-thon starting Saturday and running through July 31. Participants choose the time and mileage and the route they want to bike. Family registration is $75, individuals are $25. All money raised goes to the hospice, which serves terminally ill patients in Whiteside, Lee, Carroll, Ogle and Bureau counties. Contact Melissa Ryan at melisssa@hospicerockriver.org or at 815-625-3858 to get involved.

Do you have information on an upcoming event or attraction? Be sure to let us know about it. Please submit information for Sauk Valley Media’s weekly calendars to news@saukvalley.com. Include a contact person and phone number.

Shaw Local News Network

Shaw Local News Network

Shaw Local News Network provides local news throughout northern Illinois