Common Roots Music Festival Returns To Downtown St. Cloud For 9th Year

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- Live local music will take over downtown St. Cloud next weekend.

The 9th annual Common Roots Music Festival starts on Thursday (8/20) with a Variety Show at the Red Carpet Main Stage. The doors will open at 8:30 p.m. with the show starting at 9:00 p.m. The cost of admission is a $20 button. That same button will get you discounts at participating locations throughout the weekend.

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Coordinator Janna Idzerda says you'll have a lot to choose from Friday (8/21) and Saturday (8/22).

From Friday to Saturday, we have 11 stages across 8 venues with over 100 participants.

Idzerda says the plan is to utilize the outdoor spaces as much as possible.

The acoustic stages, our goal is to have those outside with an option to move inside.  The big band stages, Pioneer Place, Red Carpet, Gnarly Bard, and B-Side will all be inside.

Common Roots Music Festival

The first band on Friday starts at 4:00 p.m. at the Red Carpet on the outside deck. The staggered artists and musicians will play past 10:00 p.m. on Friday. The first artist on Saturday is the Granite City Jazz Trio at 9:30 a.m. at Jules' Bistro. The B-Side Indie Music Cafe has its student stage starting at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. The live music again goes through 10:00 p.m. on Saturday.

The variety of music you hear- there's a little bit of something for everyone, whether you want a singer-songwriter or some jazz, hard rock, funk; there's a little bit of everything.

Idzerda says the artists will be doing all original music. The goal is to support both local businesses and central Minnesota musicians.

When folks apply to be a part of this festival, we want to know what their connection is to St. Cloud.  Whether they've been playing here for 20 years or maybe they went to St. Cloud State, people are always coming back to St. Cloud and creating that Central Minnesota sound.