From the MUSIC SIDE

Festival in your own backyard

Ihave a confession to make: I was not born and/or raised in Minnesota. But I did choose to move here, and stay here, so that has to count for something. When I turned 18, I moved from South Dakota to Mankato for college, and I never really left.

One thing I noticed during my first summer in my new chosen state of residence … Minnesotans love a festival.

There are town festivals, food festivals, beer festivals, wine festivals, and even a garlic festival that’s been held in Hutchinson for the past 15 years. But as you can probably imagine, my favorite kind of festival is a music festival.

I’ve been to a few in my day, and they are all roughly the same format: a wide-open outdoor space, a stage, a well-curated list of bands, throngs of sweaty fans, a few food and drink vendors, and a little village of portable toilets on the outskirts of the venue.

There is nothing wrong with this blueprint. In fact,

I very much look forward to festival season in Minnesota. But I want to tell you about a new festival that goes beyond the norm.

The first Minnesota Original Music Festival begins on

Monday, July 18 and is loaded with events, workshops, and performances through Sunday, July 24. The festival will take place all over St. Peter, truly integrating itself throughout the town for its six-day duration.

The week of Minnesota music begins on Monday with a screening of Steve Firkin’s movie, “The Filmmakers”, at the Traverse des Sioux Treaty Site History Center. The soundtrack for the movie uses original music from local musicians — viewing times TBD.

The major kickoff event is Tuesday night beginning at 5 p.m. at Patrick’s on Third. The schedule of performances is Good Night Gold Dust Duo (Laura Schultz & Colin Scharf) at 7 p.m., Mal Murphy at 8 p.m., and

Chris Bertrand at 9 p.m.

But the portion of the evening that really piqued my interest is the 60 Hour Band Challenge draft. With

Ocho O’Connell and Punk Rock Tom hosting, Musicians (previously signed up to participate at mnomf.org/challenge) will be placed in ad hoc groups and will have approximately 60 hours to prepare for a performance for a panel of judges Friday, July 22 at the Red Men Club.

Groups will be asked to write and perform an original song, a cover song, and a modified cover song. For the modified cover song, the bands will have to call upon their creativity to give a well known song a new twist.

This might be by changing the time signature, having the vocalist sing without using consonants, or changing the song into a reggae-style rhythm, for example.

For the original song, the group will be given random words or phrases that are required to appear in the song. Winners of the event will open the festival on Saturday with a performance of their songs, among other prizes.

For a dose of the familiar, Saturday and Sunday mostly follow the music festival tradition of one-to-two-hour sets of performances on stage at Minnesota Square Park. Saturday starts at 11 a.m. with the winner of the 60-Hour Band Challenge and goes until 10 p.m.

The day’s artists also include Good Time Gals at 11:45 a.m.,

The Galactic Cowboy Orchestra at 2 p.m., Lucy Michelle at 5:20 p.m., Bee Balm Fields at 9:20 p.m. and many others in between.

And fear not. The party does not have to end there. You can discuss the day over a pint with friends and, undoubtedly, musicians, at the after party at Patrick’s. Sunday kicks off at a reasonable noon with some blues from PK Mayo and winds down at 7:50 p.m. with some psychedelic folk from portal iii.

What makes this festival stand apart from most others is what takes place during the week. This festival is not just about listening to music, it’s also about making music and the people make it.

Wednesday through Friday from, roughly, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., there is a series of workshops being held at St. Peter High School. While these workshops are all open to the public, some are definitely geared to working and aspiring musicians.

Just a few of these workshops include Peer Review Songwriting with Nate Boots at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Working with Effects Pedals with Colin Scharf at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Your Music Career Toolkit: Resources for Musicians in Minnesota presented by Joanna Schnedler, Executive Director of the Minnesota Music Coalition at 10am on Thursday, Grant Writing with Brenda Byron, Executive Director of the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council on Thursday at 1pm, Performing with Looping Pedals with Jason Helder at 4 p.m. on Thursday, and Music Improvisation with Liz Draper at 10 a.m. on Friday.

Another musician-centric event is Jam Night on Wednesday, the 20th at 6 p.m. Four locations throughout Saint Peter will host jam sessions where amateur and aspiring musicians are invited to bring their instruments and play with professional musicians. Each location is assigned a specific genre of interest; Bluegrass & Old Time Music, Folk Rock/Blues, Jazz, and Electronic Music.

How did this unique and ambitious event come about; you ask? As with most things, it started with a dude and a dream. (And yes, my fellow feminists, many things start with a dudette, but in this instance, it’s a dude). Eli Hoehn, a well-established Minnesota musician, had an idea and reached out to some friends and colleagues, including musicians Michelle Roche (Machiko, Good Night Gold Dust, The Given Names, Nate Boots & the High Horses, Mankato Symphony Orchestra), Eric Zimmerman (EZ Jazz, Adrian Barnett Questet), and Eric Ouren (Ouren Instruments), and in August 2021 they started putting ideas together.

I asked Eli…

What was the dream? Why did this seem like something you should do? Making a living as a musician that performs original music is difficult. I wanted to create something that would help connect music listeners to new music they’ve never heard. As long as we were at it, we thought we could provide educational opportunities for musicians (and people that want to be musicians), to help them succeed in a competitive business.

Have artists been receptive to the idea?

Artists have been very receptive going out of their way to be a part of the festival.

What are you hoping to accomplish?

The goal of this festival is to help creative people be creative by offering activities that foster networking, and hopefully, a sense of community, that provides learning opportunities for people interested in creating and working in music, and performance opportunities that help artists connect with listeners. We’re not trying to make money, in fact all the events are free, we’re trying to facilitate creativity. The festival has a lot of moving parts: amazingly everything is falling into place like it was supposed to happen this way. Our hope for the outcome is that we create an annual event that Minnesota composers and songwriters mark in their calendars and for one week in July, come together in St. Peter to perform, create, and network.

How will you know if the event is a success?

It will be a success if attendees leave inspired.

Are you hoping this becomes an annual event?

Yes, we hope this becomes one of the events people look forward to each year.

And let me tell you folks, this is a mere smattering of the goings-on at this festival. There is so much happening that one article could not sufficiently highlight it all. I strongly recommend that you visit www.mnomf.org to get the most up-to-date information. And things are being added and filled in all the time. This event truly does have the potential to become one of state-wide, or dare I say, nation-wide recognition. So, get in on it now.

Because, let’s be honest, if you read this column on the regular, you are probably a music fan (or my mom), and there is nothing a big music fan likes more than telling all his/her friends, “I knew about this before anyone else and I was at the very first one.” You know who you are. 