If you are reading this at citybeat.com or in the hard-copy newspaper edition, you likely know that there’s a music festival going on in Cincinnati this week. MidPoint Music Festival
returns for its 12th year this Thursday-Saturday, featuring more than 175 performers (including numerous Cincinnati-area acts) on stages spread throughout the Downtown and Over-the-Rhine neighborhoods. Visit mpmf.com if you need a full refresher.
MidPoint has always experienced a few cancellations, including the recent pull-out by the anticipated Foxygen. Frontman Sam France fractured his tibia and fibula during a show and has yet to fully recover. Replacing Foxygen this Saturday at 5:30 p.m. on the Washington Park stage (just before The Breeders) is one of Cincinnati’s finest, Wussy
.
Other recent additions include Nashville, Tenn., rockers Kansas Bible Company (Saturday at 10 p.m. on the free MidPoint Midway stage on 12th Street) and The Get Togethers (Main Event Friday at 9 p.m.), as well Cincinnati Reggae greats The Cliftones
(Saturday at 2 p.m. on the Midway stage).
We can cross our fingers all we want (it has worked on the weather, if recent forecasts for a beautiful three days of MPMF hold up), but there will inevitably be at least one or two more last-minute cancellations. To be sure that doesn’t screw with your itinerary too much, be sure to follow MPMF’s social media for the latest news (as well as photos and reports from the field). On Facebook, the address is facebook.com/midpointmusicfestival; the Twitter handle is
@MidPointMusic; and the first-year Instagram account can be found at @MidPointMusicFestival. While you’re following on Twitter AND Instagram, be sure to use the #MPMF
If you can’t attend or you just want to see what CityBeat’s writers are doing during MPMF, be sure to visit the music blog at citybeat.com for reviews of each day’s events. And pick up a CityBeat next week for a complete overview/wrap-up.
Day Parties and “Unofficial” MPMFing
Seemingly every year, numerous events pop up during MidPoint that aren’t “officially” affiliated with the festival but are still a part of the festival in spirit. They used to mostly be angry counter-programming events (“MidPoint sucks, come here instead!”), but, especially this year, the organizers seem to have come to understand that MidPoint is a community-oriented affair that brings tons of people to the area. We can all play nice. MPMF welcomes the synergy and added merriment to the proceedings these “satellite events” bring.
Here are just a couple of the events that are playing off of MidPoint this year:
• Athens, Ohio, orchestral Folk Rock ensemble The Ridges (a frequent MPMF highlight act) has curated the musical lineup for “FotoFocus Presents: The MidPoint Sessions
,” an afternoon “day party” to celebrate the concert photography exhibit Reverberation: Capturing the Live Music Experience at the Art Academy of Cincinnati’s Chidlaw Gallery ( see CityBeat’s story on the photo show here ).
The exhibit debuted earlier this month, but will be open longer during MidPoint; fans can check out the show until 9 p.m. on Thursday and 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The exhibit closes Sunday.
For The MidPoint Sessions, The Ridges have invited some of their Ohio musician pals (and fellow MPMF 2013 showcasers) to join in. Cincinnati’s The Happy Maladies
and Molly Sullivan , as well as Columbus, Ohio’s great Indigo Wild, are also slated to play. The performances are being filmed by The Queen City Project ( queencityproject.com ); look for video of the artists’ sessions after MidPoint.
• One of Over-the-Rhine’s many vintage gems, Findlay Market, is presenting three days’ worth of music during the day on Friday, Saturday and — if you’re craving even more live music post-MPMF — Sunday. The fest-within-a-fest is being called MPMF.FM
and runs 11 a.m.-1:45 p.m. on Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday and noon-4 p.m. on Sunday. (Most but not all participating acts are also doing official showcases at MPMF.)
Friday’s lineup features Cincinnati’s Ben Lapps
and The Hiders , plus Canada’s The Shilohs. On Saturday, catch local folksters Young Heirlooms , as well as The Please, Please Me, Shivering Timbers and Mutts. Sunday’s lineup has busy local MPMFers The Happy Maladies and fellow locals The Sundresses and Young Colt , plus New York’s The Grahams.
The MPMF.FM performances are free and open to the public. Visit findlaymarket.org/mpmf for the full schedule.
CONTACT MIKE BREEN: [email protected], @
CityBeatMusic or here on Facebook.
