STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Free music, lawn games, food trucks and more will return to the River Run Plaza on Wednesday when Sun Valley Resort kicks off its annual River Run Summer Series.

The community gathering will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays beginning July 23 and running through Aug. 27.

The resort will extend chairlift service until 7 p.m. on those evenings, giving cyclists and hikers three bonus hours of lift-assisted adventures—with discounted evening lift tickets to boot.

There’ll be an outdoor bar, food trucks, ice cream and lawn games. And each night there’ll be a live band with a portion of all daily and evening lift tickets sold that day going to a local nonprofit. Among them, the U.S. Forest Service!

The lineup:

July 23—Prairie Blue country music band takes the stage with nonprofit partners Sun Valley Figure Skating Club and The Space

July 30—Shon Sanders and the Four Penny Peep Show presents soulful music onstage; Sun Valley Youth Hockey Association and Blaine County Education Foundation

Aug. 6—David Henry Band presents country folk music onstage; Swiftsure and Mountain Humane

Aug. 13—Various Lazy presents Americana-progressive jam-rock onstage; Wood River Trails Coalition and Boulder Mountain Clayworks

Aug. 20—High Mountain Heard presents folky punky honky tonky slushy rock and roll onstage; National Forest Foundation and U.S. Forest Service

Aug. 27--High Pine Whiskey Yell presents bluegrass onstage; Mental Well-Being Initiative with St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation, St. Luke’s Center for Community Health, NAMI-WRV, 5B Suicide Prevention Alliance, The Crisis Hotline, Love Like Ky and Flourish Foundation

Sept. 3—Adam Williams Band presents alternative Americana onstage; Rotarun Higher Ground