For those not familiar with Steelbridge Song Fest, this is a festival held annually in Sturgeon Bay WI, the town I grew up in. The event is a fundraiser to save and maintain the old Michigan St Bridge, which connects the East and West sides of the city in the downtown area. The bridge was built 1930, and is the last steel drawbridge of its kind left in the US. The bridge was to be replaced by a new bridge that was built about 2 blocks away (a bridge we call "the bridge to nowhere"). The Steelbridge Song Festivals started in 2005 with Jackson Browne, and pat mAcdonald as the main headliners, and over the years has continued annually with such names as Jane Wiedlin (of The Go-Go's fame), Eric McFadden, and Kim Manning. The festival is held annually in the early part of June, and Wisconsin Beef Commission has played this year, as well as last year. I personally have performed in other years, and have attended as a spectator.
The beauty part of attending this festival is the performers. As a musician, we get to perform with peers from Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago, as well as performers that come in from all over the world. The 4 day festival is set to offer access to the public for free during the day hours at specified locations, usually within a block or two of the Michigan St Bridge on its East end. At night, the local bars and coffee houses are used as venues for bands to play with passes sold to those who want to enjoy the festivities and contribute to the cause. This year's passes were $20 a piece, which gave access to over 10 venues for Friday and Saturday night (Thursday night was free, and passes were not required. Sunday has no night stages). This is a bargain when considering how much access a pass-holder has to diverse styles of music from musicians who pay well more than $20 to participate in the festival (musicians receive NOTHING for participating in the way of income, and any money they do make is done separately in way of merch sales). The other aspect is that there is no "rock star" vibe from the performers. When attending the concerts, spectators find themselves hobnobbing with musicians from all over the world, from every genre, and every level.
As stated we have attended this festival for the last 2 years, and I have attended for many more than that. The festival itself is a great addition to my old hometown. The main downside to the festival lies in the adversity. I take this time to discuss what many feel with the city of Sturgeon Bay, but never talk about.
The city of Sturgeon Bay has shown a complete and total adversity to the Steelbridge festivals. In earlier years, it was a great festival where First Ave would be shut down and vendors (both local and not) could offer art, food, crafts, instruments, and more. The festival revolved around a big stage where performers would play throughout the day hours, and you had a real festival feel. In the last 2 years, the festival has been dropped to having a much smaller stage in the parking lot of The Holiday Music Hotel due to city restrictions, and only about 1/4 the vendors were able to fit (night venues are unchanged, as they are private property). Last year, the city went as far as having a competing festival in a park about a mile down the road, and this year, there was a "walk for cancer" going on the same weekend.
As far as the local citizens of Sturgeon Bay, I AM EMBARRASSED to be associated with MOST of them in regards to the festival. The majority of the people I know from the city don't attend, or do by scheming their way around the fee for passes (sneaking in back-doors, barrowing passes from others, etc). Many complain about the festival, as it "blocks traffic" which is funny because there hasn't been any roads closed off for it in 2 years, and when the stage was set up on the bridge itself, the bridge was closed anyway. They go on about the "weirdos" that are in their town. What these people are not taking into account is that the festival is for the bridge. Musicians participating are not only not getting paid, but spend money HAND OVER FIST at the local bars, eateries, hotels, shops, etc. The festival also brings revenue from non-participants who go to enjoy the festival and spend money as well. The hotel we stayed at was at capacity that weekend, and some bar owners make more a night in those 4 days than they do in a week at any other given time of the year. It floors me how much the locals are afraid of anything that isn't mindnumbingly expected in everyday life in a city of under 10,000 people. As a former resident, I have to say, the people and government of Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin SHAME me. Why not embrace a great thing, rather than destroy it. The city can be a lot more than just a place to go fishing and listen to pop music or country at the local bars while seeing the same people you see every stinking week!!
Hey Dave – I hope you don’t mind my lengthy response. I had to split it into two comments due to too many characters!
ReplyDeletePart 1
I agree with much that you say in your post and have also been completely embarrassed with how many people in Sturgeon Bay react to SBSF. I have been a staunch supporter of the festival and react quickly to any adverse comments that I encounter either in person or in print on Facebook or wherever.
Please know that while there is adversity, there is also a large percentage of people who support the festival full-heartedly. Last year, the Mayor himself got on stage to uplift his support. Many, many residents open their homes or establishments to visiting musicians either as a venue or for lodging, open their wallets with cash or “in kind” donations of food or drinks, or volunteer in a multitude of different ways. In addition, many residents buy passes and attend to enjoy the music and truly appreciate all that the festival has to offer. I saw businesses promote the festival on their Facebook page or by having posters up. Please don’t discredit the many hard working people that do much to support the festival (I’m not saying that you were). Their efforts certainly need to be uplifted.
Now, given the passionate way and beliefs of some of the founders (bless them for their continuous and wide reaching efforts), they sometimes have become embroiled in controversy. They’ve put their heart and souls on the line for causes that others feel equally as passionate from a complete opposite standpoint. This is the very nature of our divisive political scenario in our state right now. The Steel Bridge itself was an incredibly divisive topic for more than a decade. It was so divisive that the city council couldn’t find a compromise to make a decision for many years. Heck, even at the celebration for the new bridge, politicians took the podium to criticize from both sides.
With this controversy, there are some people who refuse to do anything that would support the bridge. There are people that criticize the founders as “radicals” who are out of touch. (Of course I believe these people to be terribly wrong.) Part of this criticism and rumor mill questions, “Where does all the money go?” This is in reference to the funds raised from the festival. In looking at this, the Citizens for our Bridge is the non-profit, 501.c.3 organization that puts the festival on. That organization is bound by state and federal laws and has strict auditing guidelines. The books/financials must be audited because of the nonprofit status and they must be made available for public record and review. As such, the books of the festival are published online by the state of Wisconsin.
Ultimately, the festival makes very little, and in fact loses money sometimes. Most of the money goes to equipment rental, advertising/marketing, for some travel/food expenses, among many other sensible things. For most years, the main concert has been free to the public. The bar venues can only hold so many ticket holders and thus the ticket sale revenue is quite limited. So, we're talking very little money.
Part II (!!)
ReplyDeleteFrom what I gather (an outsiders perspective) the organization has become a vehicle for raising awareness of the bridge as an endangered historical site in conjunction with the well-esteemed partner of the state historical society. On top of that, the festival has become a pioneer in the "retreat style" of song writing and has drawn talent who come internationally, and on their own dime, to participate. If you read the beginnings of the famed SXSW festival in Austin, it’s not too dissimilar.
What SBSF needs to do, in my opinion, is squelch the rumor mills. I’m not sure exactly how to do that, b maybe it’s a similar statement to what I’ve written above, maybe there needs to be a better public relations approach for SBSF overall that communicates everything involved. I have seen some really nice articles and interviews - so, perhaps some minds will never be changed. But, I think it would still be worth the effort.
As far as street closings and competing events, some of this will never be prevented. Door County, as a tourist destination, will always have competing and coinciding events. I believe that events happening at the same time often feed each other and end up being positive for both events. With street closings, and city calendars, part of the blame may be on SBSF. The last couple of years, SBSF has improved their management of the event dramatically. However, there have been some “slips” and “misses.” I know that, in the past, they’ve missed a couple of critical deadlines for the permitting process to close the street, to have a public festival, or to get on the city calendar. I know there has been some last minute scrambling for this or that – totally typical of any festival. People have worked very, very hard but sometimes things get missed. There have been a few curmudgeons on the city council that openly spoke poorly of the festival. But, the biggest one was voted out of office a little more than a year ago. Hopefully that will improve things too.
My understanding is that Steel Bridge aspires to one day have the Austin sort of draw and influence in the songwriting arena. I hope this becomes a reality. I recently read a story about the incredible economic impact that SXSW has had on the Austin area. Many local businesses in Sturgeon Bay profess that the festival weekend is one of their best of the year. I would venture to say that will only become more prevalent over time and more residents will come to appreciate the festival despite the often criticized and sometimes controversial founders. I believe everyone involved with SBSF has their heart and soul in the right place and that the festival is good for our city.
Thank you, Steel Bridge Song Fest, musicians, and everyone involved! It's pretty awesome to have our city turned into such a vibrant, bustling place with incredible music of every variety and 100's of bands playing original and freshly written tunes. The city doesn't yet fully realize how lucky it is - but, hopefully, if things continue to grow like they did this year, more and more people will connect the dots and see how amazing SBSF is and what it does for our city. It is certainly one of my favorite weeks of the year. I can't wait til next year!