One of the biggest comments I hear about Festival is that folks wish they served beer. We do call ourselves Beer City, USA, right. I know, I know, I scratch my head as well over this glaring omission and missed opportunity to secure another fundraising stream for their all-volunteer event.
This is not the case at the family-friendly Local First Street Party presented by Founders Brewing Co., which continues to blend the arts with our home town eats and brews to create a jubilant 13th year with plenty to offer everyone.
Local First’s Street Party has a much smaller footprint (but is close in proximity to Festival for the Arts events), which means that those folks who want a break from Festival but don’t want to head indoors this weekend can grab some food truck grub prepared by seven local mobile businesses while dancing to the beats and songs of many of our state’s chart topping acts. It even includes national recording artist Joshua Davis who hails from the mitten state.
The event always has the pulse on the very latest in musical styles, with this year’s programming including a mix of electronic, folk, hip hop, blues, and indie rock music.
This year’s entertainment lineup includes:
3:00 - 3:40 Triumph Music Academy (student performance)
4:00 - 4:45 Mark Lavengood Bluegrass Bonanza (roots /bluegrass)
5:00 - 5:45 Lady Ace Boogie (feel good hip hop)
6:15 - 7:15 Chris Bathgate (indie/folk)
7:45 - 8:45 Tunde Olaniran (electronic/pop/R&B)
9:15 - 10:15 Crane Wives (Americana/folk)
10:45 - 12:00 Joshua Davis (folk/rock/blues)
In between acts 61Syx Teknique Street Dance Academy — a local youth breakdancing troupe — and the interactive hula hoop act of Audacious Hoops will be entertaining the audience.
Food trucks appearing this year include A Moveable Feast (vegan/vegetarian options), Daddy Pete’s BBQ (smoked chicken and pork; gluten free options), Grand Rapids Pizza Delivery (slices), K. Gourmet Bake Shoppe (spiced nuts), Love’s Ice Cream (dairy and vegan options), Twisted Rooster (mac’n’cheese), and What the Truck (tacos).
Founders Brewing Company will be pouring Red’s Rye, Mosaic Promise, All Day IPA, and Dirty Bastard. The wine and hard cider vendor is St. Julian with Gordon Water Systems providing free water. (Just bring your own bottle since it is a BYO(water)Bottle event.
Pre-festival stretching provided by AM Yoga and is at 2:30 p.m.
Thanks to a generous gift from one of Local First’s community partners, any donations received on this day will be doubled with these funds going toward Local First’s Educational Foundation.
Admission: Free (donations accepted at the gate.)
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