Grand Ole Opry member to open for Evans on July 26 at Adams County Fair

ADAMS COUNTY, Ill. — The Adams County Fair Board will welcome Grand Ole Opry member Mark Wills to the 2025 Adams County Fair on Saturday, July 26, opening for country music icon Sara Evans.

It was “19(90) Somethin” when Wills began releasing his first of 19 billboard-charting singles across seven albums. Some of his titles are “Wish You Were Here,” “Jacob’s Ladder” and “I Do (Cherish You).”

Wills’ early chart success earned him an Academy of Country Music award for Top New Male Vocalist in 1998. One of his biggest hits to date is the RIAA Gold-certified “19 Somethin’” – a six-week No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

“When some fair board members and I heard Mark Wills on stage last year, we knew we had to get him to the Adams County Fair,” Melissa Shriver-Hackamack, a director with the Adams County Fair Board, said in a press release. “Every song he performed was a chart-topper and directly linked to our memories from not long ago. He has a deep list of hits, and has an energy that will definitely make this concert one we won’t soon forget. He will join Sara Evans on stage for our concert so we’ve got two legends coming on one big concert night.”

Wills is passionate about the U.S. military, taking more than a dozen trips to entertain troops in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Korea and Italy.

Entry into grandstand seating for the concert is free with adult admission to the fair that evening. To get closer to the stage, track tickets will be sold beginning on June 7.

The Adams County Fair runs from Wednesday, July 23 to Tuesday, July 29 at the fairgrounds, 15 minutes north of Quincy on Illinois Route 336.