Country super band Sawyer Brown booked for Posen Potato Festival
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by Peter Jakey–Managing Editor
One of country music’s most notable bands of the 1980s and early 1990s will be headlining the 2026 Posen Potato Festival.
Sawyer Brown will be putting on a Friday, Sept. 11 night outdoor concert in the field events area to kickoff Posen’s big weekend.
ONE OF the band’s greatest hits is “The Race is On,” and once it sunk in that this national touring act will actually be coming to little Posen, the race has been on for tickets.
The concert will be on a 48-by-36-foot stage along with Olympic and Red Bull medalists and a Sept. 11, 2001 tribute on the 25th anniversary of the tragic attacks in the country.
“THE BAND’S manager looked up Posen to find out where they are going and they are really excited about it because it is an untapped area. They are just happy to go to some place new and different,” said Mike Romanowski, president of the company Black Water, an entertainment and development company, who has been working with the Posen Chamber of Commerce to put this one-of-a-kind event together.
Sawyer Brown has released 18 studio albums and has charted over 50 times on the Billboard hot country songs, including three number one singles: “Step That Step,” 1985; “Some Girls Do,” 1992; and “Thank God for You,” 1993.
The band won the Academy of Country Music Awards top vocal group of the year in 1997 and received a grammy nomination in 1994 for “All These Years.”
THE OLYMPIC athletes, who won gold medals in diving events, were originally scheduled to appear in Alpena, but the event was moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee because of a social backlash that made the athletes feel unwelcome.
Blackwater insisted the athletes still come to northern Michigan and Romanowski, who is a native Posenite, suggested the festival.
“As part of their contract, they have to have some kind of touring act for entertainment,” said Romanowski. “We started talking with the chamber about bringing them up and being part of the entire weekend, involved with the kids, with the concert and 911 tribute on Friday.”
To land Sawyer Brown, Romanowski’s company has entertainment industry connections.
“IT IS going to be awesome, people love them, they are entertaining and everybody knows them,” said Romanowski. “You mention Sawyer Brown and a majority of people know who they are and it does not matter what genre.”
Tickets are available on the platform Eventbrite.
