A Taste of Riverworks 2025
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​Join us on May 31st, 2025 for Riverworks' signature event! ​
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17617 W Willard Rd, Poolesville, MD 20837
The Taste of Riverworks is a free, outdoor festival featuring plein air painters around the Ag Reserve, a wet paint auction of their work, live music and dance performances, art activites for adults and children alike, beer, wine, food, and ice cream! Join us at A Taste of Riverworks and play a vital role in developing this growing new arts center as it transforms our community and becomes a place of creativity for all!
Starting at 11:00 am, visit plein air painters at their painting locations to learn about them and their work, which will be for sale by silent auction at the festival.
Starting at 2:00 pm, music performances will begin outside at Locals Farm Market, before moving to West Willard Road.
Starting at 4:00 pm festivities begin at the site of Riverworks' future performing arts center (17617 W. Willard Rd, Poolesville), with food, drink, wet paint auction, and dance and music performances!
Performers include:
Riverworks' very own Reserve Wind Ensemble and Children's Choir, dancers from Poolesville's Essence Studios and Hope Garden Children's Ballet Theater, and our headliner band,
The Nighthawks - a local legendary blues and roots rock band!
Legends of Blues and Rock
“Established 1972”
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The Nighthawks was an idea in Mark Wenner’s brain long before he was able to
implement it. The musical product of pre-1958 radio in Washington, D.C., he did not
know there were rules against mixing blues, R&B, honky-tonk country, doo-wop, gospel
and rockabilly into one delicious stew.
In 1972, Mark, then 23, returned to his hometown after a New York City band
apprenticeship, eager to start a real, work-every-night band based on American roots
music. He found a receptive local scene. Washington has long been a musical melting-
pot of the kind that made Memphis the source point for the evolution of American music
in the second half of the 20 th Century. It just never had a Stax or Sun record label to tell
the world. As the city exploded with an influx of people from all the surrounding states
during the Great Depression and World War II, Washington became a hotbed of musical
cross-fertilization. When Bill Haley first brought his wacky Pennsylvania mix of hillbilly
music and rhythm and blues to D.C. in 1952, people got it. And white kids like Mark
found the Howard Theater – now recently restored and part of the historic top tier of the
Chitlin’ Circuit that included Baltimore’s Royal, Chicago’s Regal and New York’s Apollo
– just a 25-cent bus ride away from the suburbs.
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Current Lineup for the Nighthawks is:
Mark Wenner: Vocals, Harmonica
Mark Stutso: Drums, Vocals
Paul Pisciotta: Bass
Dan Hovey: Guitar, Vocals
Thank you to our Sponsors, Partners, and Riverworks Neighbors:
The Butz Foundation Robin and Sarah Salomon
Cathy and David Pickar
