This festival news roundup has Local First taking a year off from Street Party hoopla while another summer event in East Lansing has decided to do essentially the same thing.
Street Party Hiatus: Local First’s annual gathering has drawn big crowds when the weather is good. (Photo/Local Spins)
Local First is pulling the plug on its Street Party for 2018.
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The organization which promotes grass-roots, locally owned businesses wants “to take a year off to reevaluate what our community needs,” said Mieke Stoub, marketing manager.
Rocking the Stage: Heaters performing at the Local First Street Party in 2015. (Photo/Taylor Mansen)
After 14 years of staging the free June gathering in downtown Grand Rapids, the Local First board of directors made the decision “after many discussions.”
In recent years, the Local First Street Party – featuring a day of live band performances, beer, food, dancing, art and children’s activities on the street in front of Bistro Bella Vita near Van Andel Arena – has been held the first Saturday in June to coincide with Grand Rapids’ Festival of the Arts.
Thousands attended last year’s gathering, which featured sets by The Crane Wives, ConvoTronics, Hollywood Makeout, Cabildo, JRob, Molly, Bedrock and more.
“Local First has been able to pioneer a lot of things through the Street Party. With the exception of a few downtown events such as Celebration on the Grand and Festival of the Arts, the Local First Street Party was one of the only free, community-wide events,” Stoub noted.
J Rob in 2017 (Photo/Anna Sink)
“Fifteen years ago, we were the first to emphasize and celebrate a 100 percent local lineup of entertainment, food, and beer, and have since made it one of the largest zero-waste events in Michigan.”
She conceded that Local First organizers “are sure that the Street Party will be missed.”
But she also noted that since the first street party, downtown Grand Rapids has become rife with events and “has become a destination. All year round, there are myriad of really valuable and meaningful reasons to go downtown. And during the summer, it’s hard to find a weekend that doesn’t host at least one outdoor concert, festival or other community gathering event.”
The Local First Street Party isn’t the only Michigan music event opting to take a year off in 2018.
Sunny Day: The Local First Street Party crowd in 2017. (Photo/Local Spins)
The MSU Museum, which hosts the Great Lakes Folk Festival in August every year, announced this week that it was taking a break from the event in hopes of “reimagining” the possibility of “a new cooperative partnership” in staging the event.
“After careful consultation and reflection with the City of East Lansing, the MSU Museum has decided to place the Great Lakes Folk Festival (GLFF) on a one-year hiatus during summer 2018,” MSU Museum Director Mark Auslander stated Thursday in a statement posted on the museum website.
“We appreciate that the festival has been deeply valued by many in the community across the years. The decision to put the festival on a temporary one-year pause was motivated in part by extensive construction in the downtown area during the coming months.”
Not the ‘Rain Wives’: The Crane Wives playing Local First Street Party in 2017. (Photo/Anna Sink)
In a story about the announcement in the Lansing State Journal, some organizers and musicians said they were saddened, stunned and disheartened by the move to “pause” the Great Lakes Folk Festival. Read the full story online here.
Auslander also explained his decision in a story posted online by East Lansing Info. Check out that story online here.
Last year’s three-day folk festival — billed as offering “music, dance and culture from across America and around the world” — featured everything from the blues of Guy Davis to the Balkan music of the Steve Gibons Gypsy Rhythm Project to the salsa of Orquesta Ritmo. Officially, the free festival has been held on campus every year since 2002.
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