By Craig Horleman

As we hit the last day of 2021, it’s time to look ahead to what 2022 will bring in area entertainment insofar as we know.

The pandemic let up slightly over the summer to give us a chance to get back to having some fun. It’s a mystery as to what the new year will bring, but here’s hoping plans don’t get interrupted too much.

• The granddaddy of all festivals around here is the Firefly Music Festival held in the Woodlands of Dover in the shadow of Dover International Speedway.

Canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, it came roaring back in September this year. The first time it was not held in June or July, Firefly met organizers’ goals of drawing 50,000 people over four days.

Headliners included Billie Eilish, Lizzo, The Killers (again) and Tame Impala.

To many people’s surprise, Firefly will again be held in September, this time Sept. 22-25. A lineup of acts has not been announced but tickets are now on sale.

General admission tickets are $279 for the weekend; VIP tickets start at $699; and Super VIP start at $2,499.

For more information, visit here.

• Fresh off a year when concerts at the venue had to be scaled back a bit, the Delaware State Fair returns in 2022 from July 21-30.

This year was an improvement over 2020 when all concerts were canceled but the fair was successfully held.

This year’s slogan is Summer Nights and Carnival Lights.

Sam Hunt, Nelly, ZZ Top and TobyMac are slated for the fair with other announcements to come in 2022. Mr. Hunt and TobyMac were slated for the 2021 state fair before the schedule had to be scaled back.

Next year’s shows will be back to regular seating, after the use of pods during the fair this year.

Mr. Hunt, with Roman Alexander, will take the stage July 21. Nelly will perform July 23. TobyMac will play July 26. ZZ Top is slated to play July 27.

Also slated for the fair is the traditional demolition derby, which will return to the Grandstand on July 24. Tickets range from $18-$20.

For more information, visit here

• This year, the long-running June Jam charity music festival in Houston went back to its usual June date after having to postpone all the way to October in 2020.

The fact that the event went off at all in 2020 makes June Jam officials think it is the longest continuously running outdoor music festival for charity in the country, at 44 years. They have searched high and low and can’t find any that have run longer. So we’re going with that until proved otherwise.

Last year’s hit of June Jam, the popular country rock act Triple Rail Turn, looks to make their return. The co-headliner will be beach favorite JJ Rupp.

Other acts planned for 2022 include 440.

June Jam will be held June 14 with tickets on sale at midnight Jan. 31 here.

• After having to cancel two straight years, Dover Days is also a go again on May 7.

• Delaware Friends of Folk has plenty of musicians on board for the Old State House shows and monthly coffeehouses.

At the Old State House in Dover will be MGO on Jan. 14. Musically Generated Organism is comprised of Mikel Campbell, George Harvey and Ossi Becke. The three members share common musical roots with influences spanning traditional folk and blues to pop and punk.

Feb. 11 will see popular eclectic trio Stone Jack Ballers and March 11 welcomes singer-songwriter Christine Havrilla.

The concerts are free but admission will be by reservation only. Please call 302-992-8080 to reserve your seat. Face masks are required.

Their monthly coffeehouse sees a new venue in a switch to the Dover Art League, 21 W. Loockerman St., in Dover.

After more than 26 years of coffeehouse concerts at Wesley College, Friends of Folk looks forward to being an active participant on Loockerman Street. A Nanticoke land acknowledgment will precede the performances.

The coffeehouses will feature a mix of Folk Hero Contest winners and finalists. The schedule through August is as follows:

Jan 15: Middle8, Simon Purchase James opens; Feb. 19: Mike Weyrauch, Lori Citro opens; March 19: Last Chance, Bob Barto opens; April 16: Isabel Angela with Mike Shade, Jamie Tindall opens; May 21: Chapel Street Junction, Rick & Tom open; July 16 and Aug. 20 will be Folk Hero concerts where musicians compete for prizes and a chance to feature at the folk festivals.

These shows begin at 7:30 and end by 10 p.m. Admission ranges from $7-$10, except July and August will be $5-$7.

• The Central Delaware Blues Society also has a change of venue going into 2022. The Boulevard, formerly Cowboy Up, on Lafferty Lane in Dover, has been the site for their Thursday night jams for the past couple of months.

They will continue on Jan. 6 with Bad Avenue.

April 2 will see the Blood Brothers coming to The Boulevard featuring internationally acclaimed blues musicians Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia.

Ticket information is to come in the new year.

• Four acts are booked so far for Bally’s Dover Casino Resort, formerly Dover Downs.

The Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival will present an evening with jazz musicians Boney James and Jonathan Butler Jan. 16. Proceeds will benefit Beebe Healthcare’s Oncology Services.

Back by popular demand, MJ Live, a Michael Jackson Tribute Concert, will play Feb. 11. The show features impersonators Santana Jackson and Jalles Franca.

R&B singer Jeffrey Osborne comes to Dover March 11.

Aaron Lewis brings his Frayed At Both Ends acoustic tour to the Rollins Center April 22.

For tickets, visit here.

• Harrington Raceway and Casino’s Exhibit Hall will see its first concert since the pandemic with Grammy award-winning R&B recording artist Brian McKnight March 19.

For tickets, visit here.

• Smyrna Opera House has many events planned for 2022 including a four-act show with Year of the Knife, Shackled, Foreign Hands and Despize Jan. 12.; Joby Rogers: The Ultimate Michael Jackson Experience Feb. 19: The Linda Ronstadt Experience Feb. 26; Robin: The Ultimate Robin Williams Tribute Experience March 5; Irish band On the Lash March 19; Triple Rail Turn on March 25; Destination Motown featuring the Sensational Soul Cruisers April 2; 33 1/3 LIVE Killer Queen Experience April 9; The Ardensingers presents “Princess Ida” May 14; and contemporary Christian artist David Phelps May 21.

For more information, visit here.

• The Milton Theatre has plenty in store including tribute acts to ELO (Jan. 6), Heart (Jan. 22), Kid Rock (Jan. 27), Lynyrd Skynyrd (Feb. 5), Frank Sinatra (Feb. 20), Simon and Garfunkel (March 3), Bob Marley (March 31), INXS (April 14), Foreigner (May 15), Hall and Oates (June 26) and many more.

The schedule is also filled with original artists, comedians and full-scale live plays. For more information, visit here.

• Kent County Theatre Guild will begin their season with John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill” on May 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21 directed by Steve Caporiccio. The rest of the season has not been programmed yet but their monthly Whoopie playwriting nights and First State Improv shows will also be scheduled.

Concerts will also be on the docket with Jim Rezac’s Songwriter Circle on Feb. 5 also featuring Smyrna native Danielle Johnson of Hoochi Coochi and Lauren Kuhne; another chapter of Sol Knopf’s Songwriters and Storytellers also featuring John Faye of The Caulfields and Christina Havrilla on Feb. 2; and The Alicia Maxwell Project on March 5.

For details, visit here.

• Speaking of Mr. Knopf, he has a few busy months ahead. In addition to his weekly gigs, his Neil Diamond tribute show will play the Milton Theatre Jan. 28 and Everett Theatre in Middletown Jan. 29 and the best news of all, he is being inducted into the Delaware Rock and Roll Society’s Hall of Fame at the Baby Grand in Wilmington on March 27.

Because of COVID protocols, last year’s ceremony never happened, which means he will be inducted at the same as another downstate favorite, Mike Hines and the Look.

For details on everything, visit here.

• Second Street Players in Milford has their season set. The comedy “Bermuda Avenue Triangle” Jan. 28-30 and Feb. 4-6; Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” April 22-24, 29-30 and May 1; the musicals “Oliver!” July 8-10, 15-17 and 22-23-24 and “Peter and the Starcatcher” Sept. 9-11 and 16-18; and “The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge” Nov. 25-27 and Dec. 2-4.

For more information, visit here.

• Possum Point Players in Georgetown starts off its season with the courtroom drama “12 Angry Jurors” Jan. 28-30 and Feb. 4-6; the musical “A Gentleman’s Guide To Love And Murder” April 1-3 and 8-10; Noel Coward’s “Hay Fever” June 3-5 and 10-12; “Calendar Girls,” based on the film Sept. 16-18 and 23-25; and Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas The Musical” Dec. 2-4 and 9-11.

For more information, visit here.

• Finally the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover has a big year planned.

The very popular “Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray” exhibit lasts through Feb. 12; “Visions & Voices: A juried exhibition of Mid-Atlantic African American Artists” introduces a new juried exhibition highlighting the work of regional African American artists, Feb. 4-May 21; “Guild Hall: An Adventure in the Arts” from March 4 to June 18, features 72 works from the permanent collection of Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York, including artwork by Jackson Pollock, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Chuck Close; “Award Winners XXII,” June 3-July 23, exhibits the work of the Delaware Division of the Arts annual Individual Artist Fellows; “Tom Wilson: Super-Realist/Surrealist” is on exhibit from July 1 to Oct. 15. The late Delaware native Wilson built a career on rendering photorealistic architectural studies of southern Delaware before succumbing to complications of the AIDS virus in 1995; “Art Deco Glass from the Huchthausen Collection” rounds out the year Nov. 4-Feb. 18, 2023.

For more information, visit here.