Benefit to raise funds to repair flood-damaged River Theater

A benefit concert for Jerry Knight’s historic River Theater on Main Street in Guerneville, damaged by February’s Russian River flood, will be held Thursday, May 2, in Fairfax.

The show - starring Mad Mama and the Bona Fide Few, Bed Rockers and members of Swoop Unit - starts at 8 p.m. at the 19 Broadway nightclub. A donation of $20 at the door is suggested.

Knight, active in the music as a recording studio and live concert sound engineer since the late 1960s, bought the Guerneville building in 2010.

The venue began its long life in the 1940s as a movie theater, and went through several incarnations as a concert hall and nightclub, starting in the ’80s. It was known as Club Fab when it closed in 2005, until Knight reopened the building as the River Theater.

There will be a fundraising auction at the concert, with prizes including home vacation stays in Guerneville. Donations may be made to gofund.me/help-save-the-river-theater-flood-relief.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 707-521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@danarts.