“I saw them in like 2004 at Breslin (Center) and it was amazing,” Clark said. “Tonight, the band was just awesome to see.”

Festival-goers sang, swayed to the beat of some of their favorite songs, gobbled up mounds of fried foods and drank the night away as musicians such as Guster, Ben Folds Five and Barenaked Ladies headlined the acoustic-themed first night of the annual festival.

This year, Common Ground added a third stage along with several other new features such as a smartphone app, which Clark said made this year’s festival experience seamless.

“It’s set up much better this year,” Clark said. “They have the Common Ground app for your phone… where you can find basically anything, like where all the different food vendors are, all the places that sell merchandise. It shows you were different seating is, we had to go to a certain place to get in where we were sitting and its right on the map so that was really cool.”

Jena Krumm, a Common Ground volunteer, said she enjoyed working at the festival especially since it was the night that housed her favorite lineup of musicians.

But who she wanted she really wanted to see was Barenaked Ladies, who have been entertaining crowds around the world since 1988.

“Barenaked Ladies that’s who I really looked forward to,” Krumm said. “They’re the reason why I picked tonight to volunteer.”

Barenaked Ladies proved to be a crowd favorite as several women flung undergarments on stage, signaling an affectionate devotion to the band. The frenzy of women added to a somewhat-raunchy performance as Barenaked Ladies lead singer Steven Page performed a set of songs with pink under-garments hanging from his guitar.

However, Barenaked Ladies was not the only thing people went crazy for Monday night, as the food was popular as well. Food vendors from across the country lined up in the park to feed thousands of hungry spectators.

Greek Tavern, based in Atlanta Ga., gained a pretty hefty following on the first day of the festival.

Chaz Byrd, a New York City resident and server at Greek Tavern said the popularity of the food comes as no surprise to him. Greek Tavern sales food at festivals across the country and Byrd said their food is popular just about everywhere they go.

“We serve lamb gyros, chicken gyros, Philly cheesesteak and Italian sausage,” Byrd said. “Just about everyone loves it.”

Along with the food came beer consumption as well.

Roxanna Fronckel, a member of the Lansing Police Explorers, said although there were a few intoxicated Common Grounders in attendance, it didn’t present much of a problem Monday night — a theme the department hopes to keep up throughout the festival.

The first day of Common Ground proved to be promising with several days of tunes, food and festival fun ahead for the Lansing area.

Follow along with our Common Ground Music Festival coverage at statenews.com, on Twitter at @SN_Features and by using the #TSNCG2013 hashtag on Twitter and Facebook

Don’t know what day to visit Common Ground? Check out our interactive guide on the hottest days of the festival!