Rochester to celebrate with music and fireworks — all from a safe distance
Since March, the music industry at large has been forced to get creative to survive Covid-19. Riverside Concerts, Rochester’s civic music organization, had to adapt to the pandemic after canceling Down by the Riverside in the spring — holding drive-in and live-streamed concerts to tide over Med City music fans in the interim.
For the Saturday night entertainment during this week’s Rochester Community Celebration, five acts — some with local ties, some coming from hundreds of miles away — will bring their talents to Rochester.
At 7 p.m., four of the five acts will start at the exact same time: Latin rockers Dos Santos in the Mayo High School parking lot, Rochester country act County Line Drive in Century High School’s parking lot, blues-folk quartet Avery Grouws Band at John Withers Sports Complex, and Minneapolis hip-hop titan Brother Ali in the John Marshall parking lot. These shows will follow the Car Park Concerts setup: anybody who wants to attend must reserve their spot by calling Riverside Concerts. (The Brother Ali and County Line Drive shows are already sold out.)
Riverside Concerts general manager Steve Schmidt says the Community Celebration drive-in shows were borne from collaboration, just like the many other elements of the Celebration brought together by Rochesterfest and Thursdays Downtown. With all of Rochester’s main summertime things to do shuttered by the pandemic, the powers that be joined forces.
“We thought, how can we take elements from Down by the Riverside? How can we incorporate elements from Rochesterfest, and Thursdays [Downtown], and the 4th of July celebration?” said Schmidt. “We just wanted something we could do to celebrate our community in a socially distant manner, and this is what we’ve come up with.”
After the drive-in shows finish (around 8:30 p.m.), the music is only just beginning.
Minneapolis multi-disciplinarian Lady Midnight will finish the night of music by bringing her blend of visual and vocal arts inside the Mayo Civic Center — no audience members will be allowed, but the whole show will be broadcast live on KTTC.
While Lady Midnight has been live-streaming virtual open mics every Tuesday since quarantine began, she says this show will be entirely different — with the full production quality of a packed arena show, but without the cheering crowds to match. After months of playing to a cell phone, her headlining set Saturday night will be a new experience altogether.
“My phone can in no way compare to the production of this showcase,” she says. “It’s exciting, nerve-racking, instantaneous, unfiltered — I think the idea of knowing that you are participating in a shared experience at the same time as many others without being physically in the same space is a mental connection.”
The entire booking process — in normal circumstances, done months in advance — took only a few weeks, says Schmidt. In that time, however, he and his team pulled a lineup together that offers something for every listener. It’s part of the mission of Riverside Concerts, he says: bring artists of all backgrounds to Rochester, so the listener leaves with new knowledge in addition to an excellent musical experience.
In the middle of a pandemic, Schmidt says that mission is even more important: with more people clamoring for live music than ever before, it’s important to be thoughtful in the planning process.
“I thought it was important for us to be really diverse, and to know that this is a special time,” says Schmidt. “It’s really important for us to make sure that the artists that we booked were able to carry their messages at this point in history. I think we have five acts that are very good at doing that.”
Following the music Saturday, the city will also be lighting off fireworks from Soldiers Field Park. The city encourages spectators to enjoy the display from their vehicles in designated lots or on the KTTC live broadcast. The public is reminded of the need to avoid in-person gathering in the park for the health and safety of all.
Update: a previous version of this article mentioned a ‘dive-through’ parade scheduled for August 22. That event, however, has since been cancelled.
