{"id":465846,"date":"2026-10-14T14:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T14:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/465846\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T14:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T14:58:12","slug":"do-good-fest-returns-to-arlington-with-an-important-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/465846\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Good Fest returns to Arlington with an important mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barenaked Ladies once wondered what they\u2019d do with a million dollars<\/a>. On Saturday, Oct. 24, the Canadian pop-rock favorites will show North Texas what $20 can do. That\u2019s the price of a general admission ticket to National Life Group\u2019s Do Good Fest at Levitt Pavilion in Arlington. Barenaked Ladies headline, with Dallas-raised Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories<\/a> and singer-songwriter Chad Hollister on the bill. The whole thing benefits the Tarrant Area Food Bank.<\/p>\n

Twenty dollars won\u2019t buy you a fur coat<\/a>; it barely covers parking and a pretzel at most big concerts these days. But at Do Good Fest, it gets you a lawn seat under the open sky, with Arlington City Hall glowing behind the stage. It also helps put healthy groceries in the hands of local kids who need them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to really think of it as a celebration of community driven by music,\u201d says John Mullett, president of the National Life Group Foundation<\/a>, which produces the festival. \u201cOne of the reasons I think it stands out is it\u2019s a fairly affordable entry point. And 100% of that $20 GA ticket is a donation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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THANK YOU!<\/p>\n

You’re all set.<\/p>\n

CLOSE\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

From Vermont roots to a North Texas lawn<\/p>\n

Do Good Fest began in Vermont in 2014, near National Life Group\u2019s home campus in Montpelier. It came to Texas five years ago. In that time, the Texas edition has raised more than $300,000. Across both states, the festival has raised more than $2 million for causes tied to the foundation\u2019s core focus: ending childhood hunger and supporting youth mental health.<\/p>\n

Mullett joined National Life full-time in late 2024 after years of booking talent and running day-of production for the Vermont festival. Before that, he spent his career in radio, and that background still shapes how he works.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was running radio stations, I always believed that you were just trying to create a platform that the community could care about,\u201d he says. \u201cI think all the time about how [we make] it an inviting space for people to come into. How do we make it easy? How do we make it accessible? How do we make sure that whether you\u2019re 20 or whether you\u2019re 65, you go and have a good time?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Last year\u2019s Do Good Fest was headlined by Collective Soul.<\/p>\n

Provided by National Life Group<\/p>\n

Why Arlington?<\/p>\n

National Life Group has a large campus in Addison. So, why not hold the show closer to home? Mullett says the answer came down to shared values. Levitt Pavilion is a nonprofit that hosts dozens of free concerts every year across nearly every genre.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really loved this idea that that space shares the community vision that we share for the festival,\u201d he says. \u201cIt really was even more about our joint dedication to community and philanthropy and arts and music.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cause is local, too. Texas has one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the country, and Tarrant Area Food Bank serves many areas with limited access to fresh food. Proceeds this year support the food bank\u2019s Ready to Learn initiative, which sets up in-school markets stocked with healthy, kid-friendly groceries, along with youth programs and a resource center.<\/p>\n

Mullett calls the festival a \u201cmegaphone.\u201d It\u2019s one day on the calendar, but he hopes the message travels much further.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get thousands of people to come out to the festival,\u201d he says, \u201cbut then you\u2019re really hopeful that afterward they mention it to five of their friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stay (we missed you)<\/p>\n

For Dallas, the most personal story on the bill is Lisa Loeb\u2019s. She grew up here and attended the Hockaday School before heading to Brown University. In 1994, \u201cStay (I Missed You)\u201d from the \u201cReality Bites\u201d soundtrack made her the first artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 without a record deal. She later added a Grammy Award to the shelf, and those cat-eyeglasses became iconic in their own right.<\/p>\n

This homecoming carries a bonus. Loeb will perform with the original members of Nine Stories: Tim Bright, Jonathan Feinberg and Joe Quigley.<\/p>\n

\u201cLisa was a very intentional example of thinking about somebody that had roots there,\u201d Mullett says. \u201cWhen possible, I love when we can tie something in like that. I think it means more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s bill had a Texas tie, too, with Austin\u2019s Fastball<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The power of a singalong<\/p>\n

That 2025 lineup, with also included Collective Soul<\/a> and Tonic, informed the organizers\u2019 decision making for future bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of refreshed what we were doing, and we leaned into nostalgia a little bit,\u201d Mullett says. \u201cThe \u201890s activate a pretty wide age range.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barenaked Ladies fit that formula well.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne Week<\/a>\u201d still rules any room in 14 seconds or less, and a whole generation filed it alongside late-\u201990s teen movies like \u201c10 Things I Hate About You.\u201d Younger fans may know the band from a different hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom and I were talking last night,\u201d Mullett says, laughing. \u201cMy mom was like, \u2018They\u2019re the \u2018Big Bang Theory\u2019 theme song<\/a> band.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Yes. Yes, they are.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

He adds that the band brings \u201ca really positive vibe,\u201d with a \u201cfun, all-inclusive, just good overall feel.\u201d That\u2019s exactly what a family benefit show needs to close the night.<\/p>\n

Know before you go<\/p>\n

The festival also invests in young talent. The Beats for Good program spotlights North Texas high school musicians, and this year\u2019s winner opens the show at 5 p.m. The prize includes $1,500 in cash and a $5,000 donation to the winner\u2019s school music program.<\/p>\n

When: Saturday, Oct. 24. Gates open at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

Set times: Beats for Good at 5 p.m., Chad Hollister at 6 p.m., Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories at 7 p.m., Barenaked Ladies at 8:30 p.m. (subject to change)<\/p>\n

Where: Levitt Pavilion, downtown Arlington (100 W. Abram St.)<\/p>\n

Tickets: $20 GA in advance, $25 at the gate. Kids 5 and under get in free. VIP tickets are sold out.<\/p>\n

Extras: Food trucks on site, and extra donations are welcome.<\/p>\n

Grab your tickets at Do Good Fest\u2019s website<\/a>, bring the whole family and help feed North Texas kids. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barenaked Ladies once wondered what they\u2019d do with a million dollars. On Saturday, Oct. 24, the Canadian pop-rock…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,1467,64,577,6362,2596],"class_list":["post-465846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-concert-previews","tag-events","tag-festivals","tag-free-cheap","tag-local-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}