The
International Day of Music event on Saturday, July 15th, was one of the best free music festivals in the Twin Cities. The free all-day event stretches across four main stages, with a few other locations (and an offsite event at the Central Lutheran Church).
The majority of the scheduled music and dance shows were within the same block, where the
Orchestra Hall is located.
The Global Grooves Stage (on the corner of 11th and Nicollet Mall) is an outdoor stage, and its scheduled was organized and programmed by
The Cedar Cultural Center. They brought in
Douala Soul Collective, a pair of DJs spinning soul music, who was first on the stage.
They were followed by
Di Bayke Klezmer Band, an Eastern European Jewish band, who inspired a group of dancers doing a Kurdish dance with handkerchief leading the dance line.
Cydi Yang, a spoken word/rapper, musician, led her Hmong band, was the last musician that we saw.
Alma Andina (23 March 2017)
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Bluedog, a Native American band, and Alma Andina, a South America band, closed out this stage. We previously saw Alma Andina in March 2017 and said, “Local openers Alma Andina came on first, merging South American traditional folk with electro, cumbia, salsa, and merengue, for a sound of their own that clearly already has a devout area audience, witnessed by the amount of dancing and loud response from the crowd. Their name (meaning “soul of the Andes”) makes reference to the high peaks of the Andes Mountains and had the audience on that same high, captivated by band director Vladimir Garrido and band. Most members hail from or have history in Chile, playing traditional instruments like flutes, mixed with more modern beats, blips, and effects and the band has several scheduled local gigs upcoming.”
The other outdoor stage was the Music in Motion Stage (at the Peavey Plaza), it was programmed by the BRKFST Dance Company, so it mostly had dancers, from Amanda Sachs & Elena Hollenshorst to Slow Dance to MNKrump and Meridian Movement Co, all telling stories through dance movements. The highlight of the stage was Duniya Drum and Dance, an African rhythm & dance group.
The Target Atrium Stage, was an indoor small room was filled to capacity (at least 160 people in the room), to see Minnesota Orchestra chamber music. We came back to the stage to see what Dick & Patsy was… turned out they’re a duo playing Celtic music. The room can be turned into a theater, showcasing films, such as “Cloud Cult with the Minnesota Orchestra”.
The main Orchestra Hall Stage was grand and opened to the public for this event. We caught the Walker/West Student Showcase, who were all young violinists playing music from around the world.
Overall, this was a very good music festival, with a flair for classical and world music. If we were lost, there were volunteers everywhere, to help direct us where to go.
We will definitely attend again next year, perhaps this time planning on spending the entire day at the event.