Thousands enjoy music, food at Lansing’s BluesFest

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Blues music, food and thousands of people filled the streets of Lansing’s Old Town this weekend for the 18th annual Old Town BluesFest.

The event — which attracted about 15,000 people to Old Town throughout the weekend — featured more than 20 national and local blues artists.

“Our bands are just awesome this year,” said Terry Terry, president of the Michigan Institute for Contemporary Arts, or MICA, the organization which produced the festival.

The festival took place from 4:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Friday and from 1:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Saturday.

Former MSU jazz studies student DeShaun Snead and her band, Mighty Medicine, performed at the festival for the first time Friday.

“I am most looking forward to the feeling of performing on a stage that will attract so many people from Lansing,” Snead said before the show.

Snead was a jazz studies student at MSU until she dropped out of the university in 2007 to play in Mighty Medicine full-time.

Snead said her time at MSU helped prepare her to play larger shows such as BluesFest, which she was honored to be a part of this year.

“It’s something that is a marker for the end of the summer for a lot of us in Lansing,” she said.

“It is really awesome to be a part of that.”

Although the festival has been in existence for almost two decades, it still attracted a number of new attendees such as Pewamo, Mich., residents Jane and Mike Pline, who got their first taste of Old Town’s BluesFest on Saturday.

The couple came to watch a friend — a member of the band Thirsty Perch — perform.

They said the day of music and good food was an ideal way to spend their Saturday.

“Food, music, beer, women — it’s got it all,” Mike Pline said.

In addition to music, the festival featured various attractions, such as riverboat taxi rides, face painting, a children’s area and an instrument petting zoo in which attendees could learn more about select instruments.

There also were several clothing, jewelry and food vendors present.

Many of the area’s shops and restaurants stayed open throughout the weekend for this event.

Lansing residents Linda and Mike Anderson, who spent both Friday and Saturday at the festival, said they have come to the festival more times than they can remember.

“We love the music, and the food is great,” Linda Anderson said.

She said she enjoys the many attractions the festival offers.

But listening to the music is her favorite part.

“(The music) would draw me in even without the food,” she said.

For the Andersons, the festival provides a unique atmosphere to mingle with other Lansing residents.

“It’s just fun to be with all the people in town, (and) it’s just a nice, homey celebration,” Linda Anderson said.

The couple brings their daughter, Rita Weigel, and two grandchildren, Skyler, 5, and Amelya, 2, to the event every year.

“I wanted my grandkids to be able to enjoy this and grow up thinking of this as something that’s fun to go and do each year,” Linda Anderson said.

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