Let the music play…

Dear Music lovers and Music Curious,

You may have heard a little something about this already, but Winona is about to be bursting with music, and I want to give you a pass to check it out for yourself. If you’ve already been to it, then you know it’s pretty awesome. If you haven’t been, hear me out – you’ll want to.

Mid West Music Fest will spring to life in our beautiful river town and for three days, every nook and cranny in Winona will be filled with the strains of music. All kinds of music – from indie bands to folk musicians to coffeehouse-style singer-songwriters to gospel. Some of them are well known regional names, some tour nationally, some are voices you’ve never heard from far away, but all of them have been selected because they bring something special to our music scene and make this town a little bit cooler place to live.

If you think this festival isn’t for you, I’m here to tell you that the only way it’s not for you is if you just don’t like music. And that would be, well, kind of weird. But if you think it’s not for you because you aren’t 22 and into indie rock, then you’d better head over to www.midwestmusicfest.org and take a look at the lineup. How does the Saint Mary’s Jazztennial grab you? How about the Zinghoppers – big sock-puppet people that make kids bounce around? Like acappella? Check. Blues? Check. Banjos, classic rock, and reggea? Check, check, check. Bands from across the country will be converging on Winona this weekend, bringing with them all manner of music that you can roam between 14 different venues to hear.

That’s right. One wristband for $49 = three days of music and more than 100 bands. A one-day pass to all that music glory is $20. Find me that deal anywhere… because yeah, you won’t. In fact, it’s such a bargain for this collection of music that last year about 3,000 people turned out to hear it, and some came from pretty far away. Can I just say how cool it is to live in a town that people flood into because it has something they’re dying to see? Heck, I think us Winonans should swagger around all weekend puffed up with pride that our town did this. Well actually, Sam Brown and his very dedicated committee did this, but Winona is mighty happy to have some ownership of it too.

I am dying to see Apollo Cobra. I’d like to see Wildflower with Patti Darbo too. And those sock-puppet people do sound kind of fun…

Your turn.

Originally published: April 2013