The meeting began with a half-full, clear plastic water glass tapping lightly on the wooden table at Acoustic Cafe on a damp night in Winona, Minn. A group of young, bright-eyed men and women gather each week, hammering out details for an event that didn't exist one month ago.

The steering committee for the first-ever Mid West Music Fest is an unlikely group of people--students from Winona State University and Saint Mary's University, young professionals and AmeriCorps members. Whether dressed in business attire typing away on a laptop or sporting comfortable sweatpants jotting down notes here and there, the passion behind the project is unwavering.

What has now blossomed into a two-day music extravaganza to raise funds for two local nonprofits—complete with multiple stages and venues, concert merchandise and even an accompanying children's festival—began as a spark in the mind of 25-year-old Sam Brown, an AmeriCorps member currently stationed in Winona working with Semcac Head Start, in February of this year.

“The evolution of a festival here in Winona was not something I thought of right off the bat,” he said.

Originally from Red Wing, Minn., Brown has been involved in music for over a decade, performing in multiple festivals with his band as a teen and college student, helping organize and run Wulapalooza, an annual festival at the college he attended, Willamette University in Salem, Oregon—eventually becoming president of the festival his senior year— and working with a concert production company as well as volunteering for several community festivals following graduation from college. Brown found himself back in Minnesota in January 2009 and was stationed in Winona as an AmeriCorps member at Semcac Head Start in Winona in August 2009. No matter where he turned, Brown couldn’t get music off his brain.

“I noticed that Winona has a great music, art and cultural community, much like out west where they have a real vibrant music scene,” Brown said.

Nicole Kirchner, 24, a fellow AmeriCorps member and committee member for MWMF, agreed that Winona would be an ideal location for an inclusive music festival.

“People here are really receptive to anything organic; anything that is local and true to itself,” she said. “Winona is a great community to submerge something like this.”

Once Brown got the go-ahead from his supervisors at AmeriCorps, his first step wasn’t to form a solid team of cohorts or to begin booking the bands, but to set up his social networking bag of tools including accounts on Facebook and Twitter and creating a website.

“I wanted something to show people when I talked about my ideas,” he said. “I wanted to pull these things up and say, ‘Do you want to be a part of this?’ Also, there was a sense of urgency to get moving—we really don’t have a lot of time to start this thing.”

Through these devices as well as talking with friends and coworkers, Brown soon had a group of volunteers standing behind his cause. Details continue flesh out each day, but Brown’s vision for the Mid West Music Fest will be a two-day event featuring music from all genres at multiple locations and stages throughout the city of Winona on July 30-31, 2010. The event will serve as a fundraiser for Winona Semcac Head Start playground enhancement and a local non-profit that supports the arts, which has yet to be determined.

Although the Mid West Music Fest currently has no budget and no source of income, members are beginning the grueling rally to raise funds and solicit sponsors.

“Once we have some money, we can send out offers to big-name bands and lock them down,” Brown said. “We can’t do that right now.”

Committee members raced through a laundry list of “to-do” items at their weekly meeting, yet as the now-empty water glass hit the table signaling the end of the brainstorming session, each member left with a smile on his/her face and a renewed enthusiasm for the community event that began just three weeks ago.

“I have experience in being in the crazy, stressful mess of ‘What did I get into?’” said Brown. “That’s the exciting part.”

According to the countdown on their Web site—which Brown admits makes him cringe each time he sees it –there are only 141 days until kick-off for the event. Committee members have their minds focused on this year’s event but can’t help looking forward.

“I really hope what our vision is, is what our end result is,” said Kirchner. “Things like this only get bigger and bigger as they go on.”
 

For more information on the Mid West Music Fest, to volunteer, or to nominate a band, visit www.midwestmusicfest.org.