As one of two people who were actually there for all nineteen hours of Mittenfest, I feel in a pretty good position to talk about it. And I could talk about it, at length. I could mention that the crowd Friday night was twice the size we expected (249 to be exact, not including performers). I could say that there was a steady stream of people at the Corner Brewery all day Saturday (somewhere around 225, again, not including performers). I could let you know that we made more than we had planned for the entire event between the first two shows, and after I’d said that, I could reveal that we made the most money of all three Saturday night at the Elbow Room. Once I’d let it be know that, as a fundraiser, it was highly successful, I might point out how nice everyone was, and how wonderful the music was, and how the sound at the Corner Brewery was so good that during Matt Jones’s set, the cello-violin mix almost made me cry. I might give Chris Bathgate a shout-out for saying so many awesome things about 826michigan and the work we’re doing that I (again) got choked up.
But then, once you get started on something like that, where do you stop? There was literally at least one thing about every single performance I watched that I was completely in love with. And do you really want to hear about all twenty-some performances?
A billion thanks to Brandon Zwagerman, without whom it wouldn’t have been possible, who was the other person who caught the whole shebang, and who wants to expand it to another day next year. Only-one-less-than-a-billion thanks to all the performers: you moved us, astounded us, and donated your time and skill, no small feat, and one for which we will be forever grateful. Thanks also to Angi Stevens, who caught just about all of Mittenfest, and took many, many pictures that can be found here. Thanks to the Blind Pig, Corner Brewery, and Elbow Room. Thanks to the volunteers who helped out with flyering, and facebooking, and other innovate forms of publicity. Many thanks to the hundreds of people who attended, clapped, supported, and, above all, made it feel really special to be a part of our community.