Champaign continues the celebration of its 150th anniversary this weekend with the Champaign Music Festival on Friday and Saturday.
Friday’s festivities begin at 4 p.m. and end around midnight with musical acts playing in different stores and venues in the downtown Champaign area. Guests are welcomed to “music crawl” from store to store.
Saturday’s schedule includes 19 different musical acts that will perform on three different stages across downtown.
The plans are set for a petting zoo, a game truck with room for 16 people to play Rock Band for free and a karaoke stage where people can sing on stage with DJ Gary Bond, according to a press release from the Champaign Park District.
Singer Ashley Riley is one of the musical acts that will be performing during the music crawl, playing from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Aroma Café.
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“What I like about Champaign and the community around it is that it has such a great support for the local music scene,” Riley said. “There are many venues to play at and people that love to hear your music. The music crawl is such a good idea because multiple acts can play at the same time and it gives residents the opportunity to visit different stores and see different acts.”
Singer Eva Hunter will follow Riley’s set. Though Hunter is not new to Champaign, she’s hoping the festival can help to get her name back in the Champaign music community.
“I played at Aroma once before and I’ve been playing in the Champaign area off and on for 10-plus years,” Hunter said. “It was never a consistent city for me, but I decided last year that I wanted to play in Champaign more.”
LaEisha Meaderds, project manager for the City of Champaign, plans on the event being fun but, most importantly, safe.
“We are expecting to have somewhere around 10,000 guests at the festival,” Meaderds said. “We have prepared ourselves with police patrol that will surround the event and we will have security on hand throughout all of Friday and Saturday as well. Hopefully the event will run very smooth and be a fun way to celebrate 150 years of our community.”
