MUSIC - JULY 17, 2002

A day at Common Ground: Food, crafters, (music) and games

By VALERIE KRASNY

It felt like Lansing was a real downtown. Not to say that Lansing is not a real city, because it is. Still, the downtown area often reminds me of certain, not all, parts of Detroit: desolate, bleak and nothing going on to transform this. Saturday this was not the case with the Common Ground Music Festival going on.

I refused to pay $5 for parking, so I hiked it from one of the few available meters downtown to the festival, rationalizing the walk as a way to aid in burning the calories I could not wait to consume in an elephant ear. I crossed over South Washington Avenue only to find a seemingly impromptu classic car show called Cruisin’ the Gut. I struck up conversation with some of the proud owners of the cars only to find out that it was planned because of Common Ground. Craig Parrish, promoter for Cruisin’ the Gut, puts on a few shows a summer, but this one is extra special to him.

“It’s called Cruisin’ the Gut because that’s what we used to do all night long,” said Parrish. “Drive up and down this strip trying to pick up chicks.”

The car show was cool, but I could not tell you how many alternators a car is supposed to have, so I kept walking downtown toward the Adado Riverfront Park, a.k.a. Common Ground headquarters.

On my way I ran into a foursome of young folk, including Dan Kitchen, 22, of Kalamazoo who came to Common Ground exclusively to see G. Love and Special Sauce. “I only heard about this festival two days ago,” he said.

G. Love was also my draw to the festival, though I would hesitate to call myself a fan since that night I only listened to a couple of songs and headed to the Earth, Wind and Fire extravaganza.

Once I reached the park I headed toward the East Stage, which was positioned in the parking lot behind the Lansing City Market. Compared with the West Stage, this one was more rugged, rather fitting for the more youthful audience (looked like 18-32.) Michigan State University’s student radio station 88.9 WDBM (the Impact) hosted the East Stage, which featured the G. Love show. WDBM promoted the show all week last week in addition to giving away many tickets.
“We gave away all 60 tickets that Common Ground imparted to us and pulled two winners during our Thursday night local music show for the coveted back-stage passes,” said Brendan O’Neill, WDBM’s program director, who was hanging out at the Impact van throughout the show.

Next I headed to the Crafters Crossroads, the newest addition to Common Ground. This area was free to enter regardless of whether you went into the festival. There was even a free weekend stage featuring Toby Steele, The Mud Crab Boogie Band, Summer of Sol, Greater Lansing Ballet Company and Tejano Funk among others. Conceptually it was a great idea, but this first year neglected to pan out well.

Ryan Freeman, 25, of Lansing said he did not get much response to his artwork.

“It was overly depressing, and I haven’t broken even,” Freeman said. “Compared to other shows it only cost $145 to set up a tent here, but the lower initial price doesn’t do anything.”

Adeline Teggart, 15, of Missouri travels with her parents to more than 40 craft shows per year. Crafting is their way of making a living. “No crowd was ever here,” she said while breaking down her tent Saturday. “Everyone came for the music, not crafts. We won’t be back here next year.”

Nonetheless, she did exclaim gratitude for getting an all-access pass to the festival, which got her back stage where the bands were. Especially cool for a 15-year-old.

Deneese Fultz, 28, of Lansing creates candles for her craft. She does four to five shows per year in addition to fund-raisers and mall exhibitions. She, too, is tentative about coming back, she said as she lowered the tarp to hinder the sun’s rays from melting her work.

“It’s been a bust,” she exclaimed. “No one wants to carry crafts around all day, and by the time shows are done, no one wants to shop.”

Fultz suggested re-doing the parking situation so that the Crafters Crossroads was more accessible.

“They should have a two-hour parking zone so that people can shop and then put things directly into their car,” said Fultz.

By this time it was getting close to 7 p.m. I strolled back toward the East Stage to catch local rockers 19 Wheels. On my way I stopped under one of the many deciduous trees in the park to chat with the Meggison family from Jackson.
They’ve been to the festival every year so far. Mike Meggison, 37, drove his family Wednesday through Saturday nights to attend the festival.

“After Michigan Fest went bankrupt, there wasn’t anything to do for a while,” Meggison said. “Michigan Fest had larger crowds and you could bring your own food and coolers, which I liked and would like to see at Common Ground. But there is much more for the kids to do here.”

The youngest child, Josh, 9, said his favorite thing was the bungee run, a race where you wear a harness with an attached bungee cord. You run as far as you can with a plastic/Velcro unit in hand. The object is to place the Velcro hand unit on the Velcro strip as far down the corridor as possible, before the bungee cord pulls you back. “Last year my dad got the record for 27 feet,” Josh proudly stated.

Nate Meggison, 15, enjoyed the free video games in addition to the variety of food. I can concur that the food selection was respectable. The Common Ground Fest utilized our local economy by attracting largely Lansing-based food vendors, including Ramons, Woody’s Oasis and the Gnome Sweet Shop.

When I asked if they were happy with the roster of musical acts, Mike Meggison replied, “We’re old so Journey is …” He trailed of in a chuckle as his sons tried to convince me he was 10 years older than he really was.

The most progressive part of the festival is the involvement of local skate shop Modern Skate and Surf, which has been at Common Ground every year. George Leichtweis, 47, is a 23-year resident of East Lansing and owner of the Michigan chain. He loves what he does and by the end of a conversation you learn so much about skating that you are tempted to pierce the half-pipe yourself.

“By being here we can show that skating is good for the kids and to raise awareness that if you give a kid something to do, there is less of a chance that they are going to get into trouble,” Leichtweis said.

Modern set up a booth and a portable half-pipe for kids to skate on. They also coordinated two demonstrations during the weekend with skate contests.

It was great to see the diversity among vendors at the Common Ground Festival.
I agree with Leichtweis about trying to shake the festival up a little by appealing to the younger generation. “We want to help draw youth to the festival, since the bands are more for people my age,” Leichtweis said.

I pity a society who shuns and fails to embrace their future leaders.