Bluebird Music and Arts Festival showcases Midwestern culture

The drop in attendance didn't take away from the atmosphere.

By Luke Udstuen

Published Oct. 20, 2009

Bluebird Music Festival is a festival about the Midwest. It's a music-festival composed by Midwestern artists — retaining all the values and quirks that make us as Midwesterners known for our unique identity. Bluebird Music Festival encompasses the melting pot of unique cultures that exist within the Midwest — all bumping into each other, adapting from one another, forming from one another, creating a new and entirely unique manifestation of the human spirit.

While walking through downtown Columbia, soaking up the presence of the festival, listening to the emotive voices well up through the windows and cracks in the aging venues of Columbia, you don't need to be a part of the Midwest to appreciate the culture that has been created here.

Nathan Xander, a musician who played Saturday at Top 10 Wines, said he appreciated the independent nature of the festival.

"They're just a lot cooler at Bluebird," Xander said. "I talked to a real person, rather than getting an automated response saying that we were able to play at the event. Someone asked me how much I wanted to get paid, rather than telling me."

Refusing to limit itself to one form of art, Bluebird also featured a gallery crawl. ARTlandish Gallery on Walnut Street is the newest addition to the North Village Arts District and featured more than 40 artists.

Local artist Kent Durk was featured in the ARTlandish Gallery. As stated on Durk's Web site, his photographs and 360-degree panoramas are "explorations of urban decay." Durk searches where most believe nothing noteworthy can be found.

"We search gravel roads, or go to itty bitty towns, towns that only have three houses and a gas station inside them," Durk said. "So, you spot the farmers, go up and start talking to them because they've lived there all their lives."

Most of the attendees of the festival seemed quite well connected with each other, almost as if Bluebird were nothing more than a large family reunion. But even The Blue Note, which hosted the headline band, The Starlight Mints, was running far from its capacity, with large swaths of the floor before the stage remaining empty even as the band began to play. Veteran attendees of Bluebird didn't believe this year was, in terms of attendance, as successful as last year was.

"Last year it seems like there were more people," Bluebird Festival attendee Benedict Meinert said. "I don't know if it's because it wasn't as cold last year, but there were also signs out last year everywhere."

Although attendance was lacking, Meinert and friend, Joe Kane both agreed it didn't detract from the quality of the music.

"It's cool that they're doing this, in trying to get Midwestern music put out there," Kane said. "But it just seems like it's shoddily and hastily put together."

Erin Gregory, KCOU Live Events director, defended the way Bluebird was advertised.

"The Bluebird thing is very grassroots," Gregory said. "A lot of their advertising is focused on putting up fliers and posters. I know there's also a Facebook event."

Gentleman Auction House played immediately before Friday's feature band, The Starlight Mints, at The Blue Note.

"It was small, but it doesn't matter," Kozel, keyboard player and vocalist for Gentleman Auction House said. "Honestly, you're going to play to so many small crowds in your life, so this is just one less. And it wasn't horrible. We've played to like one guy on the bar staff, so it's better than that."