Common Ground Music Festival returned for the 17th year in Downtown Lansing, starting on July 5th – and ending on July 14, 2016. Common Ground Festival is one of the biggest in the mid-Michigan area.
The setting in downtown Lansing was picturesque, especially Adado Riverfront park running along the Grand River. Zip liners flew over the river as Kayakers floated below them. Several vendor booths lined the edge of the park selling BBQ, tacos, fish, subs, beer, drinks and bourbon tasting at the Wild Turkey bus.
On the far end of the park there was a large tent holding the pavilion stage, the Bells Brewery booth, Red Bull, and a smoking area that was sponsored by Capitol Region Airport.
The artist line up was diverse, with top country artists Tim McGraw, Dierks Bentley and Canaan Smith. The festival also included Rock stars Rise Against, Red Sun Rising, along with Alternative stars AWOL Nation and Milky Chance. The variety continued with talented Rap and R&B performances by artists; French Montana, A$AP Rocky, Daya and Jason Derulo.
Tuesday was opening night at the festival, the workers all wore a smile and were excited about the upcoming week of great music.
The event started promptly when the doors opened at 5pm. The Detroit, MI band Ellis played to a small crowd like they were in front of thousands of fans on the Sparrow Stage. Finish Ticket, the San Francisco Bay area Alternative band, put on a very impressive performance at the Pavillion tent. What stuck out to me was Brendan Hoye’s vocals. They were full of charisma and talent as he jumped around the stage singing songs off their recent EP Night Becomes Day.
The two main headliners that night were on the Auto Value Parts Stage. The first being Milky Chance, the three piece Alternative band from Kassel Germany. After walking around the cat walk to shoot the show, I locked eyes with singer Clemens Rehbein who looked oddly familiar to me. Rehbin has a distinctive voice and puts on a great show. I instantly became a new fan of Milky Chance, whom I had never seen before. I recognized a couple of songs they performed including, “Down by the River” and “Stolen Dance”. I certainly can’t wait to catch their next show.
The Tuesday night crowd was thick waiting for the next Headliner AWOLnation. Earlier in the day I spotted the entire band sitting in the grass by the Sparrow Stage watching the Alternative band Irontom, accompanied by an adorable Golden Retriever puppy. It’s always impressive to see a headliner like AWOLnation sitting alongside the public and watching the opening bands. They opened the show with a bang and the crowd screamed excitedly. The almost two hour set included some of their hit song like “Run” and “Hollow Moon” and they closed out the set with “Now I Can See You/Sail”.
