LOCAL MUSIC MAKERS SHOWCASED IN CITY OF ROSES MUSIC FESTIVAL

Just like merchants want residents to buy local products, bands and musicians want music lovers to listen to local acts.

Organizers for the third annual City of Roses Music Festival are helping them along, even if the weather didn't clearly cooperate.

Nearly 1,000 people poured into downtown Cape Girardeau Friday night and as many were expected to fill the streets late Saturday to hear the bands scheduled to play. In all 78 bands were scheduled to take the stage or play in downtown clubs.

Now that the City of Roses festival has proven itself, more people are interested in helping organize the event so that local bands get heard. Corporate sponsors and more volunteers make a big difference in the planning stages.

When the festival first began, organizers considered bringing a promoter in to help with the event and schedule big bands. "But we realized that wasn't our festival, that was a concert," Fara McSpadden said.

"We wanted to do our own festival" because it's our city, she said.

The idea is to promote music and local bands in the community, said McSpadden, who is secretary for the City of Roses group.

So far that promotion has been working. "The bands love it, especially if they get to play the main stage," said Garrick Gaffigan, treasurer for the nonprofit group.

Many times it's the biggest crowd they've ever played for and the stage has the most professional sound and lighting, he said. "Local people like it because it's like playing a big event."

Fans from Southeast Missouri -- all the way down to the Arkansas line -- and Southern Illinois come to hear their favorite bands play.

And musicians who call the region home also come to perform. Blues singer Snooky Pryor, the headline act Saturday night, moved to Southern Illinois in the 1960s.

But rain on Friday and early Saturday afternoon forced some bands to cancel or cut their performances a little short. It did not scare away the fans, however.

Friday night in the pouring rain people were standing in the rain dancing to the tunes of Burlap to Cashmere and other headline bands at the main stage along Water Street, said Chuck McGinty.

About 70 percent of the groups scheduled for performances at the River Campus of Southeast Missouri State University played despite some early morning showers and drizzle. The events began at 3 p.m. at the River Campus instead of the planned 11 a.m. start.

Family events and children's musical performances were planned for the River Campus, which was a first for the festival.

And the setting was perfect, McGinty said. A stage was set up in the handball court on the campus grounds where musicians played.

The university wants to use the former seminary grounds as a visual and performing arts school "That's what we're doing with the music," McSpadden said.