Steel Bridge SongFest2 Bigger, Better than Original

Door County has long cultivated a reputation as a place to relax and unwind on a low-key vacation, and rightfully so. But Steel Bridge SongFest 2 is out to change that, if only for a weekend, while simultaneously helping to save a county landmark.

The second annual SongFest in Sturgeon Bay will feature more than 60 acts and 200 musicians June 8 – 10, culminating in an all-day concert by the waterside Saturday, June 10 capped by a performance by the legendary Jackson Browne, a 2004 inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. All proceeds from the event will go to the National Trust for Historic Preservation fund designated for the city’s Michigan St. Bridge, known simply as the “Old Bridge” to most.

“This is as big a creative event that’s ever happened in Door County,” said Pat MacDonald, a longtime stalwart of the peninsula’s music scene and one of the event’s key organizers and performers.

The bridge has long been the center of a battle between preservationists seeking to restore it and planners who would like to see it replaced. The Steel Bridge SongFest was launched last year by MacDonald and his sister and longtime bridge supporter Christie Weber to bring attention to the cause and raise funds to maintain and preserve the bridge.

“We don’t want the lack of funds to be an excuse to replace the bridge,” MacDonald said. “This event shows that the people are willing to step up and fill in where the system has a shortfall.”

MacDonald hatched the idea with Browne almost two years ago during a conversation about the bridge. Browne brought up the idea of playing on the Old Bridge to promote the cause. Weber said closing the bridge for a concert wasn’t really an option, but Sheila Turner of Great Lakes Yachts stepped up and donated the use of her boat yard for the concert.

With venue in hand, MacDonald began recruiting musicians in earnest, all of whom donated performances and traveled to Door County at their own expense. That will be the case once again this year, and several Sturgeon Bay businesses have donated services and materials and over 100 volunteers have lent a hand to the cause.

“This is an all-volunteer event,” MacDonald emphasized. “Nobody’s getting paid a dime. All the bands are coming in at their own expense and contributing to our cause. I think it’s appropriate that we support them by coming out and making a contribution.”

Weber said raising money wasn’t the only purpose of the SongFest.

“Fundraising isn’t our highest priority,” she said. “Last year about a third of the attendees didn’t donate, and our main purpose is community outreach. We picked this particular weekend because it’s the deadest weekend in June and we figured we could reach more locals that way. We can’t save [the bridge] without community buy-in and without the community understanding what they’re buying into.”

The event’s centerpiece remains the Saturday concert, which is free and open to the public with donations encouraged, but not required.

“The message is the most important thing,” Weber said. “We could just have Jackson Browne come play for his usual rate of $50 a ticket, but our intent isn’t just to cater to the wealthy.”

Last year’s SBSF was a one-day event and raised over $40,000 for the bridge. This year it has been expanded to include venues throughout the city beginning Thursday evening and ending Saturday night. Participating venues include the Red Room, Andre’s, Blue Front Café, The Nautical, Stone Harbor, Pooh’s and the Pudgy Seagull.

MacDonald said the Thursday night events were planned with local residents in mind, allowing all the business-owners and employees who work weekends to enjoy some of the event’s best acts, including two veterans of George Clinton’s P-Funk All-Stars, Eric McFadden and Kim Manning.

New to this year’s SongFest is the Construction Zone, a free songwriter’s workshop running throughout the week. The workshop begins Monday evening with a reception dinner for songwriters and ends Thursday night with a round robin concert featuring the songs written throughout the workshop.

“This event started about songs,” MacDonald said. “I thought it would be interesting to see what would come out of an event with this sort of a centered theme. I wanted to see what comes out of using a bridge as a metaphor; a very loose jumping off point.”

“Take it Inside” picks up where the workshop leaves off. Artists will swarm downtown Sturgeon Bay Thursday, Friday and Saturday night at different venues, each featuring a different style and format.

“The idea is you get a bunch of songwriters and musicians together and kind of unleash them on the bars,” MacDonald said. “We’ve got a lot of impromptu things going on.”

A shuttle will be available to ferry revelers around the city all three nights and a special opportunity will be available for the under-21 crowd at Andre’s. The bar and grill will host an all-ages rock show Friday night, for which MacDonald is especially enthused.

“We’ve got a lot of good young bands coming and they’re the most excited,” MacDonald said. “They’ve got the freshest, rawest enthusiasm. We’ve got this great talent up here but they get submerged and eclipsed by so much else that is so well established. That’s one of the things about the SongFest…maybe an event like this will help create a community where some young people will stick around.”

Last year’s event attracted over 4,000 concert-goers and left an indelible impression on the city and all those involved in making it happen.

“I sometimes wonder why this cause elicits such an amazing response, and I think it’s that people feel it,” MacDonald said. “It’s a feeling of being alive. The bridge is a symbol, a point of identity. When it was built it was a point of pride and now this event is a symbol and point of pride for the city as well. We can put on a great event. We’ve got incredible local musicians.”

While the Saturday concert is free, passes can be purchased to ensure priority seating. A $25 “Beam” pass is good for all venues for all three nights of “Take it Inside” and priority seating for the Saturday concert. A “Rivet” pass gets you admission to all venues for one night of “Take it Inside” for $12. Finally, a $250 “Truss” pass gets you one of 200 reserved seats for “Take it to the Bridge!”, guarantees admittance to all SongFest events, and grants admittance to a private meet-and-greet party with Jackson Browne after “Take it to the Bridge!”.

For a complete schedule and information on purchasing passes to Steel Bridge SongFest2 events, visit http://www.steelbridgesongfest.org or call 920.818.0081.