Lansing - What do you get when you mix a blues prodigy, some boys from down south, a Woodstock veteran, a side of Meatloaf and a dash of Hootie and plop it all in the middle of Lansing?
The fourth annual Common Ground festival is set to take over Adado Riverfront Park tonight, with classic-rockers Boston and Larry McCray and Celtic musicians The Lash slated to kick off the weeklong festival.
"We try every year to have a little bit of everything," Common Ground spokeswoman Melissa Steelman said.
Steelman said the festival will include performances by recognizable acts such as The Allman Brothers Band and Joe Cocker, as well as lesser known acts. She said groups such as Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, who have a smaller area following, will get some much-deserved exposure in the Lansing community.
"I think there are a lot of surprise acts here," Steelman said. "If you're not into blues, you probably wouldn't know who Jonny Lang was if he wasn't here."
With the success of last year's festival, which pumped an estimated $3.5 million into the local economy, this year's festival has expanded to three stages, Steelman said.
Activities such as a rock wall, a children's maze and a hole-in-one contest with a grand prize of a new Chevrolet Avalanche will be scattered throughout the grounds, she said.
A festival spokesman estimates this year's event to be "comparable, if not more successful" than last year's.
"It's a great thing for the local economy with people staying in hotels, eating in the restaurants and what not," Steelman said. "It's going to be a great turnout, a lot of people are going to come."
Jerry Sprague, an acoustic cover artist scheduled to perform Sunday on the Sandbar Stage, said he is looking forward to the event as a departure from his usual bar and club gigs.
"I'm looking forward to this being a thing where older people who haven't seen me in a long time can come out and listen," said Sprague, who plays every Thursday at Harper's Restaurant and Brewpub, 131 Albert Ave. in East Lansing.
"I'm really glad to be playing. I'm from Lansing and it's nice to perform in a local, grassroots kind of thing," he said.
The festival's main attraction is the music. With acts ranging from The Temptations Review to Our Lady Peace, Lansing resident Melissa Kaltenbach decided to buy a seven-day pass to the festival.
"From what I understand, the whole atmosphere is really fun," Kaltenbach said.
For her first Common Ground, Kaltenbach said she is looking forward to seeing performances by Travis Tritt, Hootie and the Blowfish and Joe Cocker.
"I think it's great that the community pulled such a great group together," she said. "Anything that brings people to the river front is positive for our community."
A.P. Kryza can be reached at kryzaand@msu.edu.
