Over the past decade, on the north side of Lansing a quaint neighborhood has emerged out of a once neglected area. Today Old Town is a thriving community, home to a number of festivals that play a major role in the rebirth of the historic area.

“When I moved in it was a ‘ghost town’, now it is pretty vibrant,” said Terry Terry, cofounder of the Lansing JazzFest and the Old Town BluesFest and president of the Old Town Business and Art Development Association. “People are living down here, working down here, playing down here. The festivals have remained the number one attractor for continuing investment, involvement and patronage of Old Town. It’s what helped draw the Convention Visitors Bureau here, helped the developments that [David] Ferguson has done with the condos… really it’s a direct result of the festivals.”

The Old Town Business and Art Development Association produce two festivals in Old Town each year, the Lansing JazzFest, held August 1 and 2 this year and the Old Town BluesFest, held September 19 and 20 this year.

According to Terry, the mission of OTBADA is to serve as a catalyst for the quality arts programming in Old Town, for preserving the historic buildings and for community economic development. All of which are accomplished, in one way or another, by the festivals.

“The spirit of Old Town is these festivals more than anything else and I can’t over emphasize the economic impact,” Terry said. “Long term patronage over time is undeniable, unquestionable, so substantial. Old Town would not be here without these festivals.”

The JazzFest and BluesFest are two free admission outdoor music festivals held on the streets in Old Town. Attracting thousands of people to the area, these festivals have created a growing patronage for the stores, galleries, restaurants and boutiques of Old Town, while providing national headliners, along with regional and local music entertainment.

The JazzFest began in 1995 after OTBADA was influenced by an early ‘90s event held in the area called a snake-rodeo, in which the artists in the area got together to hold a music and arts event on the street. In 2003 the festival was recreated to include only jazz. Today the JazzFest hosts a wide range of jazz styles including swing, Dixieland, ragtime, Latin and more. The event also offers attendees jazz lectures and technique classes.

The roots of the BluesFest go back to 1994 as an alternative music concert held in the month of October called OctoberFest. In 2003 the committee updated the festival’s format to feature nationally recognized blues artists, working with the Capital Area Blues Society to create the event.

Both festivals consist of three performance stages; vendor tents with food, jewelry and clothing; and beverage tents for those over the age of 21, offering beer and wine on open patio tables.  Festival goers will even get to hear never before heard compositions from the musical artists, as each musical act is asked to perform an original composition never before played at any other event. It is this originality that attracts 15,000 attendees to the two-day events in Old Town, over the years bringing in millions of dollars to the community, according to Terry, who said this immense economic impact of the festivals is due primarily to their location.

“We put on a street festival — not at a park, not in a parking lot but on the streets of Old Town, to showcase the incredible assets we have here as far as buildings, the artists, the businesses, the river,” Terry said. “The festivals draw such large crowds and have had the greatest economic impact on this community bar none.”

With a production cost reaching $200,000 each, the BluesFest and the JazzFest are supported by sponsors, in-kind and volunteer support. Sponsors include: The Capital Region Community Foundation, Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, Cooley Law School, Flagstar Bank, Message Makers and WLNZ and WMMQ radio stations. A 20-member volunteer team also works year round to organize the events: booking bands; securing vendors; renting stages, lighting and sound.

The success and economic impact of the BluesFest and JazzFest to the Old Town community have lead to the development of additional festivals. This year the Old Town Commercial Association will be hosting the third Festival of the Moon on June 21, which originated as a result of the Festival of the Sun, being held on June 20.

“We already [had] the tent all set up, we [had] the parking lot rented, so we just decided that we have so many people who come out for the Festival of the Sun and love it, let’s give them another night of the festival,” said Jamie Schriner-Hooper, executive director of the Old Town Commercial Association.

Held as two separate events, the Festival of the Sun is a beer and wine tasting festival bringing in approximately 3,600 attendees, while the Festival of the Moon is a beer sampling festival with an attendance last year of 2,000.

“All of the festivals are fundraisers down here, and those festivals allow us to do all of the work that we do and continue the revitalization of the area,” said Shannon Rolley, communications director of OTCA. “So it was also important to us, knowing that we had another opportunity to not only bring thousands of people down here, [but also] to help raise money to continue Old Town’s revitalization. That was actually why we decided to go forward with it.”

The Festival of the Sun, which will be celebrating its ninth year, includes about 30 beverage vendors and six food vendors. The OTCA partners with wine and beer distributor Classic Wines to secure vendors. Local breweries and wineries are also invited to participate. Local food vendors such as Great Harvest Bread Co. and Vernadine’s Soul Food have also taken part in the festival.

For the Festival of the Moon the OTCA brings in a microbrewery and an ‘80s cover band.

“It’s a great fun night,” said Schriner-Hooper. “It’s almost a younger, livelier version of the Festival of the Sun.”

Admission for the Festival of the Sun is $15, while admission for the Festival of the Moon is $10. However, attendees can purchase joint tickets to the festivals for $20.

Just weeks following the festivals of the moon and the sun the OTCA begins working on the OktoberFest, held October 3 and 4 this year.

“Although it is a beer tent, you’re not getting Miller Light in a plastic cup,” said Schriner-Hooper. “It’s upscale,

it’s unique, it’s more of a cultural event than anything else. We have all different types of local music. Last year we had a Celtic band, a salsa band, Root Doctors.  We definitely try to do a variety of musical styles.”

In all, the OTCA is expected to make a profit of $25,000 from Festival of the Sun, $10,000 from Festival of the Moon and $25,000 from OktoberFest. The cost to produce all three festivals is approximately $100,000.

“Our ultimate goal is to get sponsorships to cover all of the cost of putting on the event and then having people out is our profit margin,” Schriner-Hooper said. “A lot of people don’t necessary realize the work that goes into planning the festivals.”

Emergent Bio-Solutions has been a huge sponsor for the Festival of the Sun, sponsoring the festival’s wine glasses for the past five years.

In order to organize the festivals, the OTCA creates working committees for each festival and uses close to 300 volunteers per event.

“Our events [are] all grass roots driven,” said Schriner-Hooper. “So our committee members not only help us come up with ideas, they help us seek out sponsors, they volunteer at the event all day along. They help us with set up, tear down; they do a variety of different things.”

Twenty-three new businesses opened up in Old Town in 2007. According to both Terry and Schriner-Hooper these new additions to the community are a direct result of the Old Town festivals. Additional festivals have even begun to emerge; in particular, Colors of Salsa joined the Old Town festival lineup for the first time last year.

The festival was organized by the Capital Foundation for Arts and Culture, which includes six board members. Costing $30,000 to produce, the event pulled in about 3,000 attendees in its first year.

“We figured there was a jazz festival, a blues festival, a sun festival, but there was no salsa festival. Salsa has become very popular throughout the whole country and is widely diverse and rich in culture,” said Marco Broggio, administrative director of the foundation.

According to Broggio, the foundation is raising the expectations of the festival this year, aiming to bring in 5,000 attendees. At the moment, however, the foundation is in search of volunteers to help at the event and assist the foundation in their mission to promote economic growth through the planning of cultural and community events, which all the Old Town festivals seem to have in common.

“We find a lot of our new businesses opening up are people who have come down here during the festival and think ‘Oh my gosh, this is beautiful, I love it down here,’ and ultimately have decided to make an investment in the area, purchase a house, put their business in,” Schriner-Hooper said. “As we continue to have these festivals, we get more and more people coming down to Old Town and rediscovering it.”