Connor Barwin’s Make the World Better benefit announces headliners

After taking 2018 off, former Philadelphia Eagle Connor Barwin will once again put on a benefit concert to benefit his Make The World Better Foundation this year.

The 2019 concert for MTWB, which builds and rehabs city parks and recreation centers in Philadelphia, will take place September 5 at the Dell Music Center in Fairmount Park.

This year’s show — which is being dubbed the 5th annual MTWB charity concert, though last year as skipped — will be headlined by Future Islands, the Baltimore synth-pop band fronted by gyrating normcore superstar Samuel T. Herring.

Philadelphia rock band Strand of Oaks/the Timothy Showalter led band who headlined Union Transfer last week and the Non-Comm convention at World Cafe Live this week — are also on the bill, along with Pacific Northwest veteran songwriter Karl Blau.

But wait, that’s not all: There’s also a To Be Announced special guest listed second on the bill whose name won’t be revealed until sometime next month.

Barwin is a Detroit native and University of Cincinnati grad who played for the Eagles from 2013 to 2016 and owns a house in Fishtown. He has remained steadfastly committed to good works projects in Philadelphia even after the team cut him and he spent the last two seasons with the Los Angeles Rams and New York Giants, respectively.

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The first MTWB benefit took place in 2014 at Union Transfer and starred Barwin’s buddy Kurt Vile. It raised $170,000, half from the show and half out of Barwin’s pocket.

The benefit has grown from there, taking place for the first three years at Union Transfer, and then moving up to the Dell in 2017, the venue that hosts an old school R&B and hip-hop series every summer but is other wise under utilized. “I’m very excited to be back at the Dell,” Barwin said on Thursday.

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Projects that the MTWB has worked on include the Smith Playground in South Philly, Ralph Brooks Park in Point Breeze and Waterloo Playground in West Philadelphia.

Tickets for the 2019 MTWB show go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday via utphilly.com.