May is the month for concerts at Joplin’s Memorial Hall.

Memorial Hall will be the host of two national acts during May.

The first is a co-sponsorship between My Club and Power 107.1.

Howie Baby, co-owner of My Club and morning personality of Power 107.1, said the two teamed up to bring Bone Thugs N Harmony to Joplin May 10.

Bone Thugs is a rap group that has sold more than 15 million albums in its career. It has recently released a new album. Howie said the new single, a collaboration with Phil Collins titled “Home,” has been doing good on the charts. They are currently on the Take Me Home tour.

He said Power 107.1 and My Club saw this as a good opportunity to bring the group to this area.

“It’s the first time they’ve ever been in the Midwest, per se, in their career,” Howie said. “So we wanted to snatch them up.”

He said they were pleased with the helpfulness Memorial Hall offered them in bringing the group to Joplin. Howie said they chose Memorial Hall because it is the only venue that had the capacity to hold many people. He said in the past, a concert like this would not have been possible, but the officials at Memorial Hall have opened up to new ideas.

“This will be a good test to see if Joplin can sustain some new shows,” he said.

Howie also hopes this concert, as well as the rock shows My Club has planned for the future, will “shake things up” in Joplin.

“Too much sameness has been going around for too long,” he said.

Tickets for the concert are $23.50. Bone Thugs will be performing with Blaze, Mo Thugs and Esham.

The performers will be staying around after the concert to sign autographs. They will also be in the VIP room at My Club for the after party. The concert starts at 7 p.m.

Beth Kownslar, facility and events manager at Memorial Hall, is in charge of the May 31 concert at the hall.

David Clayton-Thomas and Blood Sweat & Tears will be performing as part of the Festival of the Four States.

The festival is a family event in its second year running. The concert serves as the headline acts for the event.

“We wanted something that would cross various age groups and genres of music,” Kownslar said.

The festival is a two-day event held on Main Street in downtown Joplin. It will feature such novelties as a Kansas City barbecue competition, vendors, a garden show and two stages of local talent acts. Kownslar said the festival was started last year to “create a signature event for the city of Joplin.”

Around 20,000 people showed up over the two days last year, and Kownslar said she expects more people to show up this year due to the headline act.

Last year’s act was from Branson. Kownslar said the last time a concert like this was held in Joplin was in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She expects the concert to cater to various age groups.

“Blood Sweat & Tears music spans 30 years, so we’re going to get a wide range of age groups,” she said.

Tickets for the concert range from $10-$25. The festival will be held May 30 and 31 from noon to 8 p.m.

Tickets for both concerts can be purchased at the Memorial Hall box office, Bank of Joplin, Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce, Dillon’s, Ron’s IGA in Pittsburg, Express Personnel and joplinmemorialhall.com.