What I love most about Music is Art is that every year that are fun new surprises. This year, my friends and I took the Metro Rail to Canalside, and then walked along the Buffalo River (DL&W trail), which meant that we passed by the home of the world’s oldest operational fireboat – the EM Cotter. I was happy to see that there is now signage that broadcasts the exact location of the fireboat. Until now, most people passing by would never know that the historic attraction was just a few yards away, because the actual boat is not visible from Michigan Avenue.
Upon approaching Kelly Island (Middle Harbor), we noticed that the festival had extended its way across the river from RiverWorks, to River Fest Park. There were two tiki boats ferrying people back and forth from the two locations. To me, that was a fantastic new addition to the event – it added a lot of activity to the waterfront in general. It was fun to look out over the river and watch the transports in action, with bands playing on both shores.
Walking into the RiverWorks faction of the festival, I noticed that a giant shark had been painted on the concrete bunker building. The mouth of the shark was a “jump station” for one of the zipline courses. The shark mural was also the backdrop for a number of aerial artists that had taken to the sky.
Between the ropes adventure course, the zipliners, and the aerial artists (inside and out), there was plenty of high flying fun to be had. There was also plenty of music and art. Per usual, there were muralists all over the place, painting vibrant works of art, while a wide array of live bands jammed out throughout the site.
Despite the weather being on the coolish side, no one was deterred. In fact, it was perfect sweatshirt weather, which was a welcome change from those brutal 95 degrees days that we have been experiencing. That’s one of the best part about RiverWorks – if anyone did get chilly, there was plenty to see and do inside, as well as outside. By the end of the day, we had seen at least a dozen bands play, all of which were super talented. Now I’m hoping to catch a few of these bands playing around town in months to come – MiA is always a great way to discover new bands that I never even knew existed!
Kudos to the MiA team for putting together another successful festival in 2018.