The great thing is, you just missed it. AND you can still go!
I am going to be real honest with you here. Rarely do I go see live music. After last weekend in La Crosse, Wisconsin at the Mid West Music Fest, that is all about to change.
Driving home through the worst mid-April blizzard I’ve ever seen I realized that serendipity had struck again! My random decision to check out the 9th annual iteration of #MWMF2018 had put me in a unique situation.
In roughly a thirty-six hour period, I had been to a permanently closed hotel ballroom open for performances, a newer brewery, an upscale hotel lobby, a hip coffee shop/bar, a renovated third-floor ancient basketball gym, and both La Crosse’s old community theatre & attached fancy lounge. I saw twelve bands, from solo singer/songwriter to a ten-piece Afro-Caribbean & Latin Jazz group. Then I continued by jumping from electronically/synthy humping men to contemporary folk/bluegrass and finally to a funky groove dispensing machine that threw their branded condoms off the stage. I was blown away.
And I was attending pretty casually.
What is this crazy event you speak of?
Mid West Music Fest is an annual multi-day festival extravaganza that brings two states and two river cities together. Winona, Minnesota and La Crosse, Wisconsin deliver dual weekends of forty-eight hours of nearly nonstop music, a weekend in each city’s respective downtown’s. You bounce from venue to venue, taking in the place’s charm and infusing it with the passion of well played music.
No matter what music you like, if you like music at all there will be something for you somewhere. Even with ‘The Never-Ending Winter of 2018’, the slightly derailed timeliness of bands coming from Chicago or Minneapolis were adequately covered or moved around so there was always someone playing. So yes, that also means that they pull groups from all over the Midwest, plus some local, home-grown varieties as well. Now it sounds like I’m talking farmer’s markets, that’ll come later this year.
The venue’s range in size from the corner of a bar, to a intimate raised stage, to full theatres. Every place had it’s own drink offerings. Some places offered foods. I saw decadent looking chocolates at one, pizza & popcorn at others. Not to mention the great opportunities afforded to you by being downtown, you have great restaurants and bars surrounding you if you just need a sit-down break from music for a second.
If you couldn’t tell, I had a great time last weekend. So how can I give this event a great review but leave you hanging because you missed it?
It’s TWO Weekends People!
That’s right. There’s the beauty of it. You may have missed the first weekend but there’s no less than EIGHTY ONE scheduled bands coming up over the April 27-28th weekend. You can check out their website and order tickets directly through them. I paid $50 for the entire weekend, as many shows as I could fit in. Like I said, I rarely if ever see live music but I thought to myself, that has to be an absolute steal of a deal. If you can only make one day, it was $25. It’s possible there might even be shifts available you can volunteer for and get into something for free. Just go to their website, read up on the bands, check out the schedule, and make something happen. Alone or with friends (I did both) it was a great time and just reinforces the fact I try to tell all my out of town peeps…the Midwest is awesome and you should come do the things.
Make sure to pin and share this event with everyone you know! It’s totally worth coming down to from the Cities and I promise you IT WILL NOT SNOW.
Most likely
